Food system and social reproduction realities for women in agriculture across the Caribbean: Evidence from Grenada, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines

Abstract

AbstractThis article provides evidence of the food system challenges and structural barriers faced by women farmers and food producers in the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States. The aim of the piece is to add to critical literatures on political economy, development and food systems in the Majority World via recognizing the political agency of rural grassroots women in the Caribbean. To do so, we focus on the role that social reproduction has in the lives of working Caribbean women who are engaged in agricultural production. The analysis we offer was generated via a mix‐method project that included 111 farmers and agro‐processors from Grenada, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. We deliberately centre the perspectives of Afrodescendant rural women. Our study reveals the main barriers faced by women in agriculture are lack of access to land, concessions and capital; non‐gender responsive Agricultural Extension Services; an absence of national and sectorial gender policies; and ongoing dismissals of the time and effort that goes into unwaged socially reproductive labour. In illustrating these realities, we cast light on how the barriers faced by women food producers in the OECS are inextricably linked to persistent colonial‐plantation relations, patriarchal social norms and liberal‐capitalist logics.