Feb 23, 2022
Updated: Apr 24, 2022
Gender gaps in agricultural productivity arise not because female farmers are less efficient but because they lack access to agricultural resources such as male family laborers, high-yield crops, pesticides, and fertilizer. United Nations research in sub-Saharan Africa provides perspective on the region’s agricultural gender productivity gap.
UN research in five sub-Saharan countries—Ethiopia, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda, and Tanzania—shows that closing the agricultural gender gap could raise crop production nearly 20% and lift many thousands out of poverty.
Gender gaps in agricultural productivity in the five countries range from nearly 11% in Ethiopia to 28% in Malawi, based on data from the World Bank’s Living Standards Measurement Study-Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA).
Similar studies find gender gaps in agricultural productivity that range from 8% in Kenya to over 30% in Nigeria.
In Malawi, the gender gap in the use of farm equipment accounts for 18% of the productivity gap.
The gender gap also accounts for a 28% difference in the planting of high-value crops in Malawi, 13% in Uganda, and 3% in Tanzania.
In Tanzania, a lack of male farmers accounts for nearly the entire gap in agricultural productivity, whereas in Ethiopia and Malawi it accounts for nearly 45% of the agricultural productivity gap.
– Source: UN Women