African women farmers struggle with the poorly designed hoe : FAO study

In sub-Saharan Africa, women produce up to 80% of the staple crops. Rural women are almost exclusively responsible for storage, handling, marketing and processing. So important is their role that the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) chose "Women feed the world" as the theme of its 2006 World Food Day observance.

Yet a recent joint FAO-IFAD study showed that women must play their vital role in growing food while working against great odds, some of them not previously well known or understood. A survey in five African countries (Burkina Faso, Senegal, Uganda, Zambia
and Zimbabwe) showed that the tools they use are often poorly designed for their intended purpose.

The hand-hoe is still the farm tool most used in all the countries reviewed, the FAO/IFAD study found. However, the quality and durability of the hoe are often poor, and little can be done to improve its design. Many said the poor design of the hoe imposed severe limits on production and that they would never make progress without access to animal traction.

The study highlights the widespread use of short-handled hoes which, many women complained, often caused pain and fatigue. "Without doubt," the report says, "short-handled weeding hoes have the advantage of allowing the farmers full control of the hoe while s/he works around
the plants, leaving the other hand free to pull out the weeds and shake the roots free of soil". But an alternative was found in the central region of Senegal : women there use a long-handled weeding hoe that allows them to stand upright and have almost totally abandoned traditional hoes that obliged them to work in a squatting or crouched position.

"Almost everywhere except Senegal," the report says, "there is a widespread belief that work can be properly performed only if the worker is bent double and armed with a short-handled hoe. This type of cultural conditioning is an obstacle to the introduction of more comfortable long-handled implements, such as jab planters, since working upright is perceived as laziness." In Burkina Faso, one women's group said they would like longer handles on their hoes, but their husbands would never allow it.

Among the groups consulted, it was generally agreed that women needed different tools to men and that manufacturers should differentiate between the sexes. "Unfortunately, as a general rule, manufacturers and importers of tools and implements undertake no market research, have no follow-up links with their clients, do little to ensure that the full range of their wares is available at sales points, and seem to ignore the fact that, nowadays, the main users of their products are women. As a result, many implements, especially animal draught cultivators, are
too heavy for females to use. Lighter models of hand-hoe that would make weeding easier for women are unavailable, and blacksmiths devote little time to consulting with their female clients.

In most areas, animal traction was seen as the solution to women farmers' problems : passing an animal-drawn inter-row cultivator through a crop can reduce weeding time per acre from two weeks to two days. However, the researchers found that the adoption of animal traction
technology is slow, and in some countries is blocked by livestock diseases, lack of credit, and taboos on women working with cattle. (The report did note an exception: "There were no taboos against women working with donkeys, since donkeys are seen as low-class animals that involve less initial cost compared with bovines".)

Even where draught animal power was available, women were handicapped by a lack of information and training. "The majority of animal-traction training courses are aimed only at men, despite the fact that it is the women who really need them," the report says.

Recommendations for women's advancement

. FAO and IFAD found no quick or simple solution to improving the quality of farming tools and
implements used by women. However, the report proposes a number of measures that could begin to improve the situation. First, a major communication effort is needed to create greater awareness of the key role that women play in African farming and of their special needs for
production equipment. The report urges private sector producers and importers of tools and implements to undertake market research with women, and governments to set tax and duty policies favourable to local production. Government farming services should involve women farmers in training activities, promote consultation between blacksmiths and female
clients, and include advice on farm tools and implements in extension
campaigns.

Finally, research and development programmes need to focus on the energy efficiency of different types of tools (for instance, matching hoe weights and blade widths to different soil types), work closely with potential users in testing imported tools, and investigate alternatives
to the weeding hoe, including row planting and the use of donkeys with lightweight weeders.

But the report also recommends a more profound change in African agriculture: "It would be nice to imagine that Africa's overworked women could use tools and implements that save them time and effort, and give them the chance to rest and relax. But men's attitudes towards them will have to change before this is likely to happen. With more than 70% of all food production work now being carried out by women in Africa, and with household food security hanging in the balance in many countries, increased productivity and reduced workloads for women could well be central to improving family welfare.