March 2023 FINDING THE TIME AND LABOR TO FARM: HOW SOCIAL DYNAMICS DRIVE GENDER NIGERIA GENDER INNOVATION LAB DIFFERENCES IN AGRICULTURAL LABOR IN The Nigeria Gender Innovation SOUTHERN NIGERIA Lab (NiGIL) is a country- level initiative of the World Authors: Sophia Friedson-Ridenour, Paula Gonzalez, Rachael S. Pierotti, Bank’s regional Africa Gender Olubukola Olayiwola, and Clara Delavallade Innovation Lab, which conducts rigorous impact evaluations across Sub-Saharan Africa KEY MESSAGES to build the evidence base on • Across Sub-Saharan Africa smallholder farmers depend heavily on innovative interventions that manual labor supplied by their households, families, and communities, promote women’s economic but women are particularly labor constrained. empowerment. The goal of NiGIL is to equip policymakers • This research paired a detailed quantitative examination of patterns of and project teams in Nigeria with gender difference in the allocation of time and agricultural labor with an new evidence on what does and does not work in addressing the in-depth qualitative examination of how people explain those patterns. underlying causes of gender The descriptive findings and resulting conceptual framework can be used inequality, and how best to to guide future programming and research. close gender gaps in earnings, productivity, and assets. • In southwestern Nigeria, married women’s time and agricultural labor constraints are rooted in common social expectations that men’s farm This work has been funded by the Bill and plots take priority and that a woman’s own farming should not interfere Melinda Gates Foundation and the Umbrella Facility for Gender Equality (UFGE), which with the agricultural production managed by her husband. is a multi-donor trust fund administered by the World Bank to advance gender equality • Women access lower quantity and quality of labor because of off-farm and women’s empowerment through experimentation and knowledge creation to commitments, and time constraints around when in the day and when in help governments and the private sector focus the season labor is allocated to their farm plots. policy and programs on scalable solutions with sustainable outcomes. The UFGE is supported • Overcoming agricultural labor constraints for women farmers, especially with generous contributions from Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, married women, may require reimagining the role of women and men’s Ireland, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United farms in the household. Several new Africa Gender Innovation Lab studies States, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, suggest avenues for future innovations to support women producers. and the Wellspring Philanthropic Fund. http://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/africa-gender-innovation-lab CONTEXT labor patterns at different points in the farming cycle. Women in Africa account for an average of 40 percent of Drawing on insights from observations and interviews labor in crop production (Palacios-Lopez et al., 2017), but with 93 participants, and combined with evidence from resource and opportunity constraints prevent them from existing literature, we identified five primary types of time optimizing their time (FAO, 2011). In southern Nigeria, constraints women face and then mapped how these where this study took place, married women often time constraints relate to agricultural labor constraints manage separate farm plots in addition to working on (see Figure 1). We also listened for the underlying joint plots managed by their husbands. Women control social logics—or taken-for-granted ways of organizing the outputs from their own farms, and while they benefit productive and reproductive work—that helped explain from the plots managed by their husband, they do not the time constraints observed. control the outputs. Women’s disadvantaged access We paired the qualitative data with rich quantitative data to agricultural labor, both in terms of labor quantity and from a high frequency survey to examine the relationship quality, constrains the productivity of the farms they between time and labor constraints in a larger population. manage. To better understand why women are labor The primary source of quantitative data are individual constrained, we explored how smallholder farmers surveys of 609 male and female smallholder farmers allocate labor to plots managed by men and women and in southern Nigeria. These surveys were conducted listened carefully to how people described what limited among randomly selected farming households identified the available labor for their plots and why.1 from the April/May 2018 Living Standards Measurement Survey (LSMS-ISA).2 The sample is representative at the HERE’S WHAT WE DID state level for the selected states included in the study. The World Bank’s Africa Gender Innovation Lab Participating households were surveyed seven times conducted in-depth qualitative research in the during the agricultural season, from pre-planting to southern state of Oyo, Nigeria, examining the social post-harvest. During each high frequency visit, female dynamics that produce and reproduce gender gaps and male plot managers were asked for a seven-day in agricultural labor. Over the course of one year, two recall of number of hours worked on the plot by the Nigerian researchers visited three study communities manager and other workers, as well as the overall daily eight times, spread throughout the year to capture time use of the plot manager. 2 HERE’S WHAT WE FOUND “ The qualitative research found that women’s agricultural production is embedded in a complicated intrahousehold negotiation over time, which impacts She [my wife] cannot cultivate as much the quantity and quality of women’s labor on their as me because when I want to harvest own farms and also their ability to mobilize other my own farm produce, she will need to labor. Common explanations by study participants assist me in doing that. about gender differences in farming were twofold: 1) Men are the head of household and the family feeds – 37-year-old man from their farm, so men’s farms are prioritized and 2) Women farm what they can manage while still prioritizing household duties and labor on their to show which time constraints affect the quality and husband’s plots. The expectation that men’s farms quantity of manager, household, and hired labor for would be prioritized was generally taken for granted women’s farm plots. For example, “Manager labor hours” and was readily accepted by both men and women. (i.e. the quantity of women’s labor on their own plots) are As illustrated in the framework presented in Figure 1, influenced by caretaking and household responsibilities, these social expectations influence how people spend off-farm income generating activities, timing in the day their time and guide the intrahousehold allocation of (i.e. when in the day she is available to work on her agricultural labor. Those underlying explanations are own plot), and dry vs. wet season demands. Although depicted in the far-left column of the figure. Column not explored in detail in the qualitative research, we 2 lists the many types of time constraints that affect know from quantitative studies that these constraints on how women allocate their time. These time constraints labor for women’s farm plots influence farm investment are represented by icons, which are used in column 3 decisions and affect farm outputs. FIGURE 1: CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK: HOW TIME CONSTRAINTS AFFECT THE QUANTITY AND QUALITY OF LABOR FOR WOMEN’S FARMS 3 The framework in Figure 1 is meant as a tool for “ conceptualizing the relationships between women’s time use and their use of agricultural labor. To further illustrate the practical implications of these In the dry season, she’s [his wife] constraints, we highlight four of the most prominent always at my place...she won’t [do time and labor constraints captured by the qualitative anything in hers]...this is because and quantitative data. the amount of work we do then won’t allow her to have time for 1. WOMEN HAVE LESS ACCESS TO hers until rainy season. AGRICULTURAL LABOR THAN MEN First, the quantitative data clearly captured gender – 30-year-old man disparities in quantity of labor used per hectare. Figure 2 displays labor intensity throughout the agricultural cycle for a sample of married plot managers. hectare spent working on the plot by the manager, Specifically, it shows, separately for female and male spouse, and other household members3 at six different plot managers, the average number of hours per times of year. The top panel shows that men and FIGURE 2: HOURS OF LABOR PER HECTARE ON PLOTS MANAGED BY MARRIED MEN VS MARRIED WOMEN Key: Jun 18 Jul 18 Oct 18 Dec 18 Jan 19 Feb 19 Male 300 Female 200 MANAGER Hours/HA LABOR 100 0 300 200 SPOUSE Hours/HA LABOR 100 0 300 200 FAMILY Hours/HA LABOR (NO SPOUSE) 100 0 Jun 18 Jul 18 Oct 18 Dec 18 Jan 19 Feb 19 Green Harvest (June–Sept.) Main Harvest (Oct.–Dec.) Land Preparation (Jan.–Mar.) Notes: This figure depicts the average hours of labor spent at the plot in the 7 days prior to the visit by gender of the manager and type of labor. Family labor includes all of the work reported by family members excluding the spouse. Sample: 91 female managers and 305 male managers. 4 women provide nearly equal amounts of their own 24 hours per week on household work, compared with labor to their plots, although the data suggest that in an average of 11 hours for men. In addition, not only do January and February, which are periods of peak labor women spend less time than men on their own plots, demand, women do not provide as much labor per but they also spend more time than men working on hectare as men. The second panel shows that male other plots. To compensate for time constraints, some plot managers have substantially more labor from their women hire laborers to meet their agricultural labor spouse throughout the agricultural calendar while the needs. But hiring laborers presents other challenges. third panel suggests that they have significantly more Because women are time constrained, they are often labor from other household members, and significantly unable to provide appropriate supervision, which is so in December. necessary to ensure laborers do good work. 2. WOMEN’S DOMESTIC RESPONSIBILITIES REDUCE THEIR TIME FOR AGRICULTURAL LABOR Female respondents in this study, as across Sub- “ They [men] have more time than us... Women will want to cook food, wash Saharan Africa, spend significantly more time on clothes. I want to clean the house. reproductive work than men. Expectations about But him, when he wakes up early in women’s domestic responsibilities limit their available the morning and I have cooked for hours to work on their farms. Women with young him, he prays then he is off to the children are particularly affected by caretaking farm…That is why women’s power responsibilities, and men readily recognized that cannot be up to men’s power. children limited women’s time to farm. As illustrated in Figure 3, in the sample of married respondents from the – 35-year-old woman quantitative data, women spend an average of nearly 5 FIGURE 3: MARRIED MEN VS MARRIED WOMEN’S TIME USE FOR “ HOUSEHOLD AND AGRICULTURAL WORK Agriculture work on own plot Agriculture work on other’s plot Household work When someone goes to farm in the morning time, 40 38.6 they work more than in the evening time. So, if my 32.3 husband goes to his own Hours per week 30 10.8 23.6 farm plots in the morning, he will work better than 20 4.8 when he comes to mine in the evening. 5.3 10 16.7 – 20-year-old woman 9.7 Male Female Notes: This figure illustrates the number of hours spent on agriculture work (on own and others’ plots) and on household work during an average week of the 2018-2019 agricultural season. It does not account for time spent across all categories of activities. Excluded categories are time spent on personal activities, non-farm business, and others. Agricultural work on other’s plot is work that is performed away from a manager’s plot. Household work includes household work in the home, outside the home, and providing care to children and dependents. Sample: 91 female managers and 305 male managers. FIGURE 4: USE OF TIME THROUGHOUT THE DAY Men’s agriculture work on own plot Men’s household work Women’s agriculture work on own plot Women’s household work 40 Share of managers engaging in an activity 30 20 10 0 5:00 a.m. 7:50 a.m. 10:40 a.m. 1:30 p.m. 4:20 p.m. 7:10 p.m. 10:00 p.m. Time of Day Notes: Percentage of female and male managers who report engaging in an activity of each category at that time of day. Sample: 91 female managers and 305 male managers. 6 3. WOMEN CANNOT START 4. THERE IS SEASONALITY IN THE AGRICULTURAL WORK AS EARLY IN AVAILABILITY OF LABOR FOR THE DAY AS MEN WOMEN’S PLOTS Women’s domestic responsibilities not only reduced the Women’s access to labor is especially constrained by time they had to work on agricultural activities, but it also seasonal fluctuations because of the precedence given structured when in the day they were available to do to men’s agricultural production. Both men and women agricultural labor. In Figure 4, the solid lines shows that prioritized women’s time for men’s farms during short- men start agricultural work earlier in the day than women term labor bottlenecks, which happened at various times and continue agricultural work later in the day as well. throughout the season, and was particularly apparent Meanwhile, the dashed lines illustrate that women are during harvest time. Figure 5 illustrates the percent of more likely than men to be performing household work time spent on the manager’s own plot versus time spent at all times of day, and especially in the morning and on agricultural work off-plot. In southern Nigeria, June evening. falls within the primary growing season and December Furthermore, although not evident in the quantitative falls withing the primary harvest season. Figure 5 shows data, the qualitative research captured important that in June, women spend almost as much time as men nuances about the organization of labor. Qualitative data on their own farms when their labor is less in demand. indicated that it was common practice for household But, in December, during harvest season, women spend labor to go to the farm plots managed by the husband first much less time on their own plots and much more time during the day, and those managed by the wife second. doing agricultural work off-plot (presumably this is often This arrangement was generally unquestioned. People on their husband’s plot). Women’s labor availability work for a longer period in the morning and the labor is for their own plots shrinks during times of peak labor generally more productive. Like manager and household demand, and their labor off-plot increases during these labor, hired labor also tended to concentrate on women’s same periods. plots in the second half of the day. Women often hired FIGURE 5: ALLOCATION OF AGRICULTURAL LABOR BY laborers to work on their farms in the afternoons and MARRIED MEN AND WOMEN evenings, after the laborers had already worked on Agricultural work on own plot Agricultural work on other’s plot men’s plots. Labor for women’s plots, therefore, was more limited than men’s in terms of the number of hours, 100 14.3 Percentage of total time engaged in agricultural labor but also when in the day the work happened, possibly 21.8 29.7 affecting the productivity of that labor. 80 47.0 “ 60 Once I know that my husband will 85.7 78.2 40 harvest his jute and I also want to 70.3 harvest my jute on the same day, it is 53.0 20 not easy to do the two together. So, I will leave my own for his own. Anytime my husband wants to harvest, the 0 Male Female Male Female whole family will go but for mine is just June 18 Dec 18 me and my husband. Notes: Percentage of time female and male managers spent on agricultural work on and off their own plots, conditional on engaging – 30-year-old woman in any agricultural activity. Sample: 91 female managers and 305 male managers. 7 POLICY IMPLICATIONS Women face multiple and overlapping time constraints. Many of those time constraints are structured by social expectations about how men and women should spend their time. Intrahousehold negotiations over labor are not just about maximizing efficiency or productivity, but also about maintaining social hierarchies, roles, and responsibilities. Overcoming these constraints may require reimagining the role of women and men’s farms in the household. At the same time, it is important to remember that while social logics can structure time use, these are not fixed realities, and time use is subject to negotiation. Several recent studies by the Africa Gender Innovation Lab indicate that it is possible to encourage households to re-examine women’s role in agricultural production and their ability to invest in their farm plots. For example, a study in Cote d’Ivoire showed that encouraging couples to complete joint action plans for their rubber cultivation led to increases in women’s participation in farm management.4 In Uganda, a 3-day workshop for couples plus small incentives encouraged male farmers to register sugarcane out-grower contracts in their wife’s name, which in turn led to an increase in women’s participation in high- value crop agriculture and improvements in women’s agency and control over productive resources.5 Finally, in Mozambique, a project that included psychological mindset training in standard agricultural extension services led women farmers to transition to market-oriented agriculture, increasing the size of their plots and their adoption of cash crops and good farming practices.6 Additional work is needed to build on these studies and test whether these types of empowerment initiatives can improve women’s access to agricultural labor and their control over their time. For more information on this study, see the following paper: Pierotti, Rachael S., Friedson-Ridenour, Sophia, and Olayiwola, Olubukola. 2022. “Women farm what they can manage: How time constraints affect the quantity and quality of labor for married women’s agricultural production in southwestern Nigeria,” World Development, Vol. 152, April 2022. FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT 1 This work builds on earlier research on labor constraints faced by female farmers in Cote d’Ivoire, summarized in this policy brief: Carranza, Eliana, Donald, Aletheia, Jones, Rachel, and Rouanet, Léa. 2017. “Time and Money: A Study of Rachael S. Pierotti Labor Constraints for Female Cotton Producers in Cote d’Ivoire.” Gender Innovation Lab Policy Brief, No. 19. World Bank, rpierotti@worldbank.org Washington, DC. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/27951. 2 More information about the LSMS-ISA survey can be found at https://microdata.worldbank.org/index.php/catalog/3827/ Amy Geist download/49289 ageist@worldbank.org 3 Plot managers can draw on three sources of labor for their plot: their own labor, household labor, and hired labor. Since the proportion of married households that hire work outside the home is very low, we exclude this source from the 1818 H St NW analysis. Washington, DC 20433 USA 4 Donald, Aletheia, Goldstein, Markus, and Rouanet, Léa. 2022. “Two Heads are Better Than One: Agricultural Production and www.worldbank.org/africa/gil Investment in Côte d’Ivoire.” World Bank, Washington, DC. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/37550. 5 Ambler, Kate, Kelly M. Jones, and O’Sullivan, Michael. 2021. “Increasing Women’s Empowerment: Implications for Family Photo credits: Welfare.” IZA Discussion Paper 14861. https://www.iza.org/publications/dp/14861/increasing-womens-empowerment- Cover: Elohor Egbane / World Bank; implications-for-family-welfare. Page 2: Dayo Ibitoye / World Bank; Page 5: Arne Hoel / World Bank; 6 World Bank. 2022. Top Policy Lessons in Agriculture. Africa Gender Innovation Lab, World Bank, Washington, DC. Page 8: Olubukola Olayiwola / World Bank. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099602010042246167/IDU19730f0bb1d19514caa183b61eca0299bcc1c.