Gender Gap In Rice Productivy

Women make up about 43%of agricultural labor force all over the world.This indicates their essential role played in agriculture and rural economies,especially in countries with developing economies.However,women often face gender constraints which shrink their productivity and also limit their contribution to the agricultural production,economic development,family’s welfare,communities and societies.Reviewing the existing studies on the comparison between male and female productivity,the Food and Agriculture organization of the United Nations(FAO,2011)has concluded that male farmers have higher productivity on average.The gender gap in agricultural productivity ranges from 20%to 30%with an average of 25%.Reducing the gender gap is one of the possible solutions to improve women’s rice productivity,develop the economy and enhance social welfare.By eliminating the gender gap,the agricultural productivity in developing countries may increase from 2.5%to 4%and reduce by 15%to 17%the number of people with nutritional deficiencies all over the world.Therefore,it is essential to address the gender gap in agricultural productivity.The research findings in this field may provide the foundation for policymakers to introduce appropriate policies.Researchers used different methods to measure the gender gap.Some studies such as Mook(1976),and Bindlish and Evenson(1993),separately estimated the production function of men and women by using pooled regressions with a dummy variable for householders’ or managers’ gender.The estimated coefficients of the production functions were then used to assess the gender difference in labor productivity.However,these early studies did not consider the endogeneity in the inputs which depends on the different characteristics of the farmers.Some studies measured productivity by estimating the income or salary of agricultural labor without addressing the personal characteristics and properties that may affect the labor force(Sahn and Alderman,1988;Behrman and Lanzona 1989).These studies also assessed the returns from education for men and women.Some studies investigated the gender difference in technological applications.The application of technology is considered to be one of the best long-term indicators of productivity compared with the metrics used by studies on static productivity which aim at measuring outputs at a specific time and may be affected by short-term variability.Some recent studies applied decomposition to determine the gender gap in productivity.These studies suggested that the gender gap is the sum of the structural and endowment effects;in some cases the structural effect is responsible for over 50%of the gender gap.These findings suggest that the difference in productivity between females and males is not caused by their biological differences but by their endowment and returns gained from those endowments.Hence,the gender gap between women and men depends on the social relationships.Most existing studies attributed female farmers’ lower yields to lower input levels and human capital compared to male workers.For instance,access to both human and physical capital has limitations for female farmers such as the market,education,land,labor,extension,and credit.Furthermore,women face more institutional constraints which affect the agricultural produce on the basis of farm/plot marketing and management.Some studies estimated that when differences are controlled for inputs then there will be no significant disparity between male and female productivity.The major determinants of the gap between genders have been identified as differences in gender on the basis of:(ⅰ)access to and use of agricultural inputs,(ⅱ)tenure security,relative land investments,and improved technologies,(ⅲ)market and credit access,(ⅳ)physical and human capital,and(ⅴ)effect of informal institutional constraints on the farm/plot management and agricultural produce marketing.Vietnam is an interesting case study since it is a developing country in Asia and its economy is based on agriculture.Vietnam is one of the biggest countries in the rice export;it tanked 4th in the export of rice all over the world in 2011.At the same time,rice is an essential agricultural product in the life of 89 millions of Vietnamese people and rice cultivation employs about 60%of Vietnamese workers,mostly women.However,due to the Vietnamese tradition,women are often more disadvantaged than men in accessing the production resources and in terms of access to social life.Thus,the study of gender gap in rice productivity in Vietnam is needed.Method of this study:(ⅰ)OLS regression model and Blinder-Oaxaca method used to measure gender gaps in rice productivity.(ⅱ)Qualitative analysis used to explain why there is gender gap in access rice production resources.(ⅲ)Heckman models and propensity score matching method used to measure gender gap in formal credit approaches.(ⅳ)2SLS models and Blinder-Oaxaca method used to measure gender gap in access to own rice landFinding(ⅰ)The rice productivity of male headed households is about 18.7%higher than female headed household which is equivalent to 0.925 tons.The gender gap in rice productivity is caused by the endowment(36.98%)and structural(63.02%)effects.Land and credit variables are two most influential factors of increasing productivity.At the same time,these two factors are two biggest contributors to the gender gap in rice productivity.(ⅱ)The reasons of gender gap in rice production resources in Vietnam include:formal institutions,informal institutions,market and households.(ⅲ)Among those participants who successfully obtained credit,approximately 85%women obtained less credit than men and the amount of credit that women obtained was also significantly less(approximately 1.8%)than that obtained by their male counterparts.Econometric analysis showed that gender,number of years of schooling,marital status,participation in agricultural activities,off-farm employment and ownership of agricultural land for a male-headed household significantly influenced discrimination in obtaining credit and the amount of credit obtained.Moreover,the propensity score matching results found that the average treatment effect on the treated(ATET/ATT)increased the credit obtained by males by 220(000)Vietnamese Dong(VND);(ⅳ)Male headed households are more advantageous in owning land as compared to female headed households(12%).The ownership of rice growing area of male householders is 25.32%higher than that of female ones which is equivalent to 928.454 m2.The gender gap ownership of rice growing area of household is explained by endowment effect(69.62%)and structural effect(25.34%).