Abstract
Women in India perform a range of roles in wheat-based agricultural systems. However, data remain sparse. Cultural norms which construct men as farmers serve to conceal women’s contributions from researchers and rural advisory services. We use data from communities in four Indian states, selected to exemplify high and low gender gaps, to provide insights into how women are challenging norms which privilege male decision-making in order to participate in innovation processes. We hypothesized the transitioning of women from labourers in wheat to innovators and managers of wheat is likely to be far from straightforward. We further hypothesized that women are actively managing the processes unleashed by various sources of change. We use the concept of doxa—ideas and actions in a society that are taken for granted and are beyond questioning—as an analytic lens to help us understand the ways in which women deploy their agency to secure their goals. Our analysis allows us to develop a ‘A typology of women’s strategies to strengthen their managerial decision-making power in wheat’.
Highlights
India is the second largest producer and consumer of wheat globally, and wheat is its second most important staple food crop, after rice (USDA 2017)
Despite the importance of wheat to livelihoods and food security literature searches and stakeholder discussions conducted across the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) covering India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan indicate that data on the roles and responsibilities of women in wheat is sparse (Badstue et al 2017; Jafry 2016)
Across the three low gender gap communities, middle-income (OBC and GC) women are increasingly recognized as wheat farmers
Summary
India is the second largest producer and consumer of wheat globally, and wheat is its second most important staple food crop, after rice (USDA 2017). Increasingly climate-smart, technologies in wheat are widely promoted Among others, they include improved wheat varieties, zero tillage, residue management, seed drillers, laser land levelling, and combine harvesters. They include improved wheat varieties, zero tillage, residue management, seed drillers, laser land levelling, and combine harvesters These technologies eliminate weeks and even months of arduous labour and hold the promise of increased productivity and production (Aryal et al 2018; Jat et al 2014; Chauhan et al 2012). Drucza and Peveris (2018) review 73 papers about women in wheat-based systems in Pakistan They find that the literature strongly reasserts "cultural norms and gender roles [in agriculture], rather than question their persistence or attempt to examine them. Landesa and Oxfam (2013) argue that the imagery of the farmer as male helps legitimatize male rights over physical and financial capital, including control over and access to land, as well as less tangible capitals such as decision-making power, and the right to participate in information networks
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