This PIM webinar recorded on Jun 10, 2021 presents the findings from five projects that comprised a set of PIM grants on Feminization of Agriculture: Building evidence to debunk myths on current challenges and opportunities. Research teams from across CGIAR worked since 2018 to explore the dynamics and impacts of migration, including male-outmigration, on gender relations in agriculture and natural resource domains. More info: https://bit.ly/FemofAg1

2. Feminization of agriculture grants 2019---
• 9 PIM grants to challenge the prevailing assumptions re: the feminization of agriculture
• Term “feminization” of agriculture used widely but inconsistently
• Two main narratives (Doss et al 2021, forthcoming):
- Negative: increased workload on women without resources needed for success – women are “left behind”
- Opportunity: for women’s empowerment and gender equality as women’s visibility and voice increase
• Often linked to migration (as men migrate, women play a bigger role in agriculture)
• Migration a consistent theme in many proposals including the 5 to be presented today
Prevailing narrative about migration vis a vis the feminization of agriculture that we challenge
• Men are migrating out of rural households and communities
• Women are “left behind” to farm
• Farming continues as usual after men migrate
• As migration increases over time, no one is left to farm
• Migration is one way and linear
2

3. Feminization of Agriculture grants
Migration and Gender Dynamics in Irrigation Governance in Nepal (presented by Wei Zhang, IFPRI)
Rural out-migration and the feminization of agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa: a multi-country, mixed-methods study
(presented by Jordan Chamberlin, CIMMYT)
Gender and generational dynamics in land restoration amid male out-migration: Strengthening the evidence base through
cross-country analyses (presented by Ana Maria Paez, ICRAF)
Scrutinizing the ‘feminization of agriculture’ hypothesis: A study on the gendered evolution of labor force participation in
agriculture in Indonesia 1993 – 2014 (presented by Markus Ihalainen, CIFOR)
When the strong arms leave the farm: Gender and labor migration in Vietnam (presented by Nozomi Kawarazuka, CIP)
Discussant: Cheryl Doss, Oxford University, PIM
NOTE: these projects were all initiated pre-COVID

4. Migration and
Gender Dynamics
in Irrigation
Governance in
Nepal
• Ruth Meinzen-Dick, Wei Zhang, IFPRI
• Prachanda Pradhan, Farmer
Managed Irrigation System
Promotion Trust, Nepal (FMIST)
• Manita Raut, Diana Suhardiman, and
Deepa Joshi, IWMI
Photo credits: Bob Yoder, Manita Raut

5. Context
• Strong history and tradition of Farmer Managed
Irrigation Systems (FMIS) in Nepal
• Various types of farmer contribution (male dominated)
• Male out-migration
• What happens to the gender dynamics in
irrigation governance?
• Four research questions
Photo
credits:
Bob
Yoder,
Manita
Raut
Research questions:
1. Institutional change:
What changes in formal rules of WUAs and in gender norms have been
observed? How are these related to male migration?
2. Women’s roles:
How do male migration and these institutional changes relate to women’s
participation in irrigation? Do women take on membership and leadership
roles in WUAs? Do women meet labor contributions through hiring labor, or
contributing female labor, or not at all?
3. Technological change:
What technologies are in use? How do these change demands for male and
female labor? How are these related to male migration?
4. Outcomes:
What consequences for effectiveness of irrigation systems and collective
action? Does the adaptation result in more inclusive decision making in
irrigation system management?

6. Context
• Strong history and tradition of Farmer Managed
Irrigation Systems (FMIS) in Nepal
• Various types of farmer contribution (male dominated)
• Male out-migration
• What happens to the gender dynamics in
irrigation governance?
• Four research questions
• Methods: Phone survey of 336 Water User’s
Association (WUA) leaders and qualitative studies
of 10 irrigation systems (some studied over 40
years)
Photo
credits:
Bob
Yoder,
Manita
Raut

7. Findings
1. Institutional change:
• Overall changes in rules to allow women’s participation, but changes not necessarily related to male migration
o Migration associated with rules for women’s membership in their own right, allowing women to
participate in member meetings, and alternatives to labor contributions (cash or contract labor).
2. Women’s roles:
• Overall, men’s participation ↓, women’s participation ↑ in irrigation system management, but participation
does not necessarily mean greater decision-making power
o Male migration associated with ↑ women’s attendance in WUA meetings, but not with women speaking
more
o Male migration associated with ↑ women’s participation and ↓ male participation in canal cleaning
o Remittances used to hire labor as first option; women contribute labor if male labor not available
3. Technological change:
• Male migration associated with women plowing land (but not operating tractors for land preparation yet) and
mechanization with harvesters and threshers.
• No significant association found for irrigation technology such as the use of sprinkle system or drip irrigation.
• Tractor reduces the need to keep bullocks, lessening women’s the burden for fodder collection and grazing
4. Outcomes:
• Some land fallowing; relatively little reported decline in system performance (but potential bias in phone
surveys)
• Sign of more inclusive decision making in irrigation system management in some systems, but it depends

8. Contributions to body of knowledge
• Mixed methods approach allows us to test the significance of the
association between male migration and key variables to answer the
research questions. Further insights from the qualitative studies help
complete the picture, e.g.:
• Phone survey revealed mechanization of farming, but not technological change in
irrigation itself
• Case studies revealed that there are other things going on that affect women’s
time/labor, with implications for their participation irrigation management
• The need for system perspective to holistically understand migration and
gender dynamics in irrigation governance
• Look beyond what happens in irrigation management; connected sectors
• Context of migration and feedback loops
• The extent to which women’s changing roles translate into more inclusive
decision-making is shaped by women’s agency and their diverse choices.

9. Background
• Interrogate the stylized narrative
• Outmigration male dominated?
• Sending HHs/communities “feminizing” production?
• if so, how?
• Compare perspectives from alt. empirical windows
• Qualitative work: Ethiopia, Tanzania
• Survey data: Ethiopia, Zambia, Tanzania, Nigeria, Uganda
• Concordance? Or systematic blind spots in survey data?
Rural out-migration and the feminization of agriculture
in sub-Saharan Africa: a multi-country, mixed-methods study
Cristina Ramos,
Jordan Chamberlin,
Mariam Gharib, Lucy
Njogu, Ana Maria Paez

10. Rural out-migration and the feminization of agriculture
in sub-Saharan Africa: a multi-country, mixed-methods study
Key findings
• migration evenly split M/F under generic definition
• work motives, urban dest. & temp. moves more common for M
• may mask bundled social/economic motives in gendered ways
• int’l migr. (perm/work) – 60% F (Eth)
• out-migration rates decreasing in remoteness
• male out-migration:
• increases female labor allocations to agr. activities
• more muted impacts on women’s agr. decision-making
• (increases renting out land by F-headed HHs)
• female out-migration:
• larger remittances – but mostly to M-headed HHs
• cultural constraints to (M/F) ability to see agr. as valid domain of F expertise
• even when M absent and F are clearly active farm managers!
patterns
impacts
!!

11. Rural out-migration and the feminization of agriculture
in sub-Saharan Africa: a multi-country, mixed-methods study
Contributions to broader story
• Place dependent stories
• Destinations, M/F participation patterns; Eth. differs from elsewhere
• Measurement matters!
• How do we observe “migration” events?
• “Feminized” agricultural outcomes, e.g., mgt vs labor
• Subjective accounts diverge from “objective” measures
• Imperfect observations or hidden agency?
• Overall: support for a feminizing agriculture, but the welfare and
developmental valence of these changes are unclear
• More stress;  renting out land
• More control; longer term broadening of (culturally constrained) women’s economic
ambit (lagged effects?)

12. Drivers of
migration
Who is
moving?
• Labour
• Capital
• Knowledge
• Decision-making
What are the
impacts, who is
affected?
• Relationships
• Resources, financial flows
• Communication, knowledge
flows
• Gender roles & social norms
• Aspirations
What are the
mediating
factors?
Photos: Kelvin Trautman
Gender and generational dynamics in
land restoration amid male out-migration
Strengthening the evidence base through
cross-country analyses
Ana Maria Paez Valencia, Marlène Elias, Barbara Vinceti, Mary Crossland,
Jennifer Langill, Jennifer Twyman

13. Kenya Burkina Faso
Migration
Patterns
• Longer-term: Migrants leave for urban centers such
as Nairobi, take non-ag jobs, and return for a few days
every month
• Seasonal: Mainly young men out-migrate for a few months of
the year to work in horticulture or gold panning and return
during the agricultural season
• Migration increased over the past five years due to
erratic rains and poor harvest
• Migration often part of negotiated household
strategy in order to get cash to support the family
• Migration increased over the past years as new dry season
economic opportunities have arisen in other rural areas.
• Migration better accepted by elders when part of negotiated
household strategy
Labour &
Capital
• Main burden is loss of labour. Women taking on tasks
typically undertaken by men such as fencing and
ploughing
• Most HH receive remittances (94%) which are
extremely important (80%)
• Households (HHs) are not labour constrained as many
migrants return to farm and other HHs reduce the area under
cultivation to accommodate available labour
• As HHs resource-constrained, migration viewed positively as
remittances help with purchasing food, farm inputs, and thus
enhance production
Decision-
making
• Migrant members still involved in farming decisions
while away (via phone)
• Women with migrant husbands reported increased
freedoms and control over decisions but also
emotional stress and loneliness
• As most migrants are young men (vs main HH decision-
makers), the influence of their departure on decision-making
is not significant
• No significant changes in gender relations reported at HH
level considering migrants’ social position (mainly sons)
Aspirations • Women’s aspirational narratives focus on
commercializing farm activities, likely reflecting their
new reality as farm managers (Crossland et al., 2021)
• Women and men who remain on the farm seek to maintain
and invest in their HH production over time
Crossland, M., A.M. Paez Valencia, T. Pagella, K. Mausch, D. Harris, L. Dilley et al. 2021. Women’s changing opportunities and aspirations amid male outmigration: Insights from Makueni County, Kenya. The European
Journal of Development Research DOI 10.1057/s41287-021-00362-8.

14. Photos: Kelvin Trautman
• Migration can and is opening opportunities for rural people both in and out of agriculture, but different types of
migration (and mobility) have different effects on a household’s capacities to invest in farming and agricultural
innovation.
• Gendered impacts in terms of labor, decision-making, skills and knowledge are mediated by who within the
household leaves and remains, and the strength of personal relationships among migrants and their households –
experiences are highly diverse and defy an easily defined typology
• In Kenya, migration takes place in a wider context of rural transformation that sees women’s increased participation
in farming activities and decisions, while maintaining a relative status quo in norms that limit their own possibility of
migrating
Main Messages

15. Scrutinizing the 'feminization of agriculture'
hypothesis:
Trajectories of labor force participation in agriculture in Indonesia
Markus Ihalainena, Iliana Monterrosoa, Kartika Sari Juniwatya,b,
a Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)
b Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Indonesia

16. Objective and methods
Methods
1. Longitudinal analysis to characterize
participation over time
2. Dyadic analysis of husband and wife
to characterize household LPF over time
3. Pair-wise regression analysis of
women’s LFP to identify determinants to
entering, remaining in, and exiting a
given sector
Background:
• While agriculture is declining (share of BNP, employment), it continues to be a vital
source of employment to rural women (Cameron et al 2019)
• Ongoing processes of agrarian change, incl. outmigration, agribusiness expansion and
increase in FHH have been linked to changes in household division of labor (e.g. FAO
2019, Li 2015)
Objective: To contribute towards a more nuanced understanding of women’s
participation in agricultural labor in Indonesia through characterizing the evolution of
rural married women’s labor force participation over time

17. Key findings
0.00
5.00
10.00
15.00
20.00
25.00
30.00
35.00
40.00
1993 2000 2007 2014
NA-NA NA-A NA-H A-NA A-A A-H
• Dynamic participation
over time/life cycle
• No significant trend of
wives ‘left behind’ in
agriculture
• Important differences in
agricultural work between
women with present,
absent and no husbands
Ag
N-a
H

18. Key insights
Spouse_stat: 0=husband at home; 1=no husband; 2=husband not at home
Wealth_q: 0=poorest ; 4=wealthiest
1. Entering/exiting agriculture does not necessarily imply permanence. Gendered changes
in labor must be understood in context of increasingly diverse and multi-local rural
livelihoods
2. Differentiating between de jure and de facto female-headed households and engaging
with intersecting factors of social differentiation is critical
3. This can allow for uncovering important, gendered dynamics of agrarian change even in
contexts where a process of ‘feminization’ is not apparent in national statistics

19. Nozomi Kawarazuka (CIP), Elisabeth Simelton (ICRAF), Duong Minh Tuan (ICRAF)
When the “strong arms”
leave the farms: Gender and
labor migration in Vietnam
Ha Tinh (disaster prone)
Dien Bien (ethnic minorities)
Angola
Malaysia
Laos
Japan
South Korea
Taiwan
East Europe
Saudi Arabia (women)
Saigon (men and women)
Hanoi (men and women)
Hanoi, Neighbouring district towns (men, young women)

20. Crop system change
4 years international migration
Hello, are my
orange trees
growing well?
A short cycle rural-to-urban migration
Assets purchased by remittances
Kawarazuka et al., 2020
Yes!
Please send
more money.

21. Dien Bien (rural-to-urban migration) Ha Tinh (international migration)
Planting
Harvest
Cooking
Land preparation
Planting
Weeding
Pruning
Spraying
Harvest
Transport
Cooking
Cleaning
Cooking
Cleaning
Washing dishes
Washing clothes
Care taking
Shopping
Relatives and neighbors
Simelton et al 2021. Sustainability
Back-up labour sources (mostly exchange labour)
Relatives Neighbours
Grandfathers - no role

22. Insights and implications
• Simelton et al. 2021. When the “Strong Arms” Leave the Farms—
Migration, Gender Roles and Risk Reduction in Vietnam.
Sustainability, 13(7), 4081.
• Kawarazuka N., Nguyen Thi Van Anh, Vu Xuan Thai. 2021.
Agriculture in intergenerational relations: Ethnic Thai youth in
northern Vietnam. Social Sciences Working Paper No 2021-2.
Lima, Peru: CIP. 20 p.
• Kawarazuka et al. 2020 Gender, labor migration and changes in
small-scale farming on Vietnam's north-central coast. Critical Asian
Studies 52(4), 550-564.
• Farmers. 2019. Four participatory videos highlighting women and
men farmers’ voices with community events to show the videos
YouTube
• O’Dwyer 2020 A Climate of Difference: Gender, Farming, and
Climate Variability. (MSc thesis) Lund University
• Actionable gender awareness manual for local partners (including
Simelton & Le 2020: Gender checklist for agroadvisories)
• Mulia et al (in preparation): National comparison of impacts on
agriculture of migration and migration policies
Migration and agrarian change
Differentiated accumulation of
wealth
Innovations for the poor and for
women
Invisible feminization of
agriculture
Production and reproduction