by DR. R. Balakrishnan
Introduction
1. Food security
2. Pacific Islands resources
3. Pacific rural women in agriculture
4. Pacific rural women's access to productive resources
5. Macro-transformations influencing rural women's food sector roles
6. Organizational support to Pacific rural women
7. Conclusions and recommendations
References
Despite the dramatic achievements in economic development throughout the world over the latter part of this century, achievements in human development, social advancement and ecological resource management lag far behind. Among the various concerns dominating the human development agenda is food security, especially women's role in achieving and maintaining household food security. This chapter examines rural women's current, valuable contributions to the food economy and to food security in their productive capacity not merely as members of a vulnerable beneficiary group but as producers, marketers and buyers. Using island countries in the Pacific region as a basis for analysis, this chapter will explore the multiple roles of rural women in agriculture and food systems, and women's access to resources to enhance their contribution to food security. The chapter concludes with several recommendations which should help both to document the plight of Pacific rural women and to enhance their contribution to food security.
Woman distributing food for the family
At the household level, food security is defined as the capacity of the household to procure a stable and sustainable basket of adequate food. In order to procure this, a family must have access to a farming system. However, among Pacific island nations, a household's access to all "food basket" commodities depends on particular economic and social conditions beyond the farming systems that determine household food security. For example, trade exchanges and labour migration between developing Pacific island nations and developed nations, such as Australia and New Zealand, affect household food security in the island nations.
In individual households, food security is a daily concern of consumption and intrahousehold resource allocation. Women's multiple roles are integral to these household resource concerns. Each household strives to fulfil the demand of obtaining adequate, available and affordable food to fulfil the needs of the members. Thus, household food security is a function of the resource-seeking and resource-allocation behavior of the household members. As documented globally, women play a crucial role in the intrahousehold resource nexus; rural women in the Pacific island countries are no exception. Pacific rural women's role in food production through home gardening, subsistence fishing, fish or taro processing and informal food selling all are resource-seeking tasks that contribute to the household food basket.
In this chapter, food security is examined from the household, community and national levels. Such distinctions are important given that, for instance, global or national food adequacy does not necessarily translate into an equitable distribution of food among a nation's communities and among the members of the households. In fact, differential economic and social equity conditions influence access to food among households in a community and within a household by age and sex.
Some households, usually those in the marginalized sectors of society, lack either the productive resources to produce food or the economic resources to obtain food through the market system which, in turn, leads to a tenuous food security situation. Often, ignorance of the public food distribution system or inadequate public transportation hampers access to food among certain subgroups in a community. One way in which these marginalized households help to protect against food insecurity is to utilize their social support system and exploit ecological resources. These resources can play a key role in ensuring consistent access to food through lean times. In the Pacific island nations, community kinship relationships and social norms guiding food sharing can have a positive impact on immediate food security, while the exploitation of ecological resources often has adverse implications for future food security. As this chapter will demonstrate, women's roles in utilizing interhousehold resource exchanges and the islands' natural resources can be determinant variables of household food security.
For the purposes of this chapter, the Pacific region comprises seven developing nations (the Cook Islands, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Western Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu) and two developed nations (Australia and New Zealand). This chapter discusses both the developed and the developing countries because, in recent years, their economies have become inextricably tied. The Pacific region's rich natural resources support its major economic enterprises in agriculture, fishing, timber and trade. Tourism, a growing sector, also depends on the ecological endowment of the region. In the agricultural field, cash crop production and subsistence cultivation coexist. Similarly, a dual system of commercial and subsistence fishery production exists. All countries have experienced a decrease in agricultural production in recent years. The traditional subsistence sector has degenerated, thereby affecting household access to a food basket and national food security. Nonetheless, agriculture, agriculture-related enterprises and tourism will continue to be the major development enterprises for many of these countries for the foreseeable future.
Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu also have significant mineral resources. Papua New Guinea has an industrial zone and the commercial job sector of modern cities can therefore provide a range of employment opportunities not available in the smaller Pacific island countries. Fiji has cash crops in sugar which has permitted the country to expand into a more diversified economy. For the remainder of the developing islands, semi-subsistence economies prevail, with agriculture providing the subsistence needs of the bulk of the population and a significant proportion of national exports.
The developing Pacific island countries have a dominant agricultural sector in contrast to the two developed countries, Australia and New Zealand, based on the comparison of agricultural labour and share of agriculture in GDP. Export trade in the Pacific island countries is dominated by agriculture and national resource-based harvests from the ocean and forest. Since export trade is heavily dependent upon the exploitation of natural resources, serious concerns for sustainable development exist. The Pacific island countries export mostly cash crop agricultural commodities that require labour-intensive processing, such as palm oil, copra, coconut oil, vanilla, coffee and cocoa. In general, labour-intensive cash crop processing is dominated by women workers. With the exception of Vanuatu and Western Samoa, cereal imports are increasing among both developed and developing countries (although no such data are available for Tonga). In Fiji, food aid in cereal has increased. In the context of growing cereal imports, among the Pacific island countries, food security is an increasing concern particularly where the traditional staple diet consists of root crops. As a result, the impact of root crop availability (or unavailability) on household food security needs and its relevance to rural women's role in crop processing needs to be considered. With the exception of Fiji and Australia, all the countries have shown a decrease in food production per caput.
3.1. Rural women in the agricultural labour force
3.2 Rural women in subsistence agriculture
3.3 Rural women in the cash crop sector
3.4 Rural women in rural food marketing
3.5 Rural women and fisheries
3.6 Rural women's social network and access to food
In this chapter, the role of rural women is analysed by combining a review of macrodata complemented by information from microstudies. The foremost impediment to addressing rural women's role in food security in the Pacific island countries is the lack of available data. One study, based on her informal assessment of existing statistics, echoes the concern that the essential needs of Pacific island women are not being addressed by existing data. The paucity of an organized database hinders extensive and meaningful macrocomparisons of women's roles in agriculture in the Pacific island countries at various time periods. The dearth of a database is compounded by the use of uneven measures in data collection across these countries; and the available information lacks a consistent base year and comparable measures. Most comparisons across Pacific island countries currently rely on qualitative information obtained from microstudies. Indeed, a clearer description of the role of rural women in these countries emerges from the contextually rich information found in microstudies. While one advantage of using information from microstudies is that it provides household- and community-level information, a caveat is that the assumptions and approaches guiding these microstudies often vary considerably.
The available data, with their current limitations, provide information to demonstrate a pattern of women's participation in agriculture. Employing development indicators from a few sources, a comparison of recent statistics among the countries' relative status in human development indexing, gender development indexing, and women's participation in agricultural labour is presented in Table 1.
Among these small Pacific island countries, Fiji is placed high in the achievement of human development and in gender-related development. Such a ranking places Fiji on a par with Australia and New Zealand in these areas. Western Samoa, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu are all rated medium in the human development category; however, no gender-related development data are available for any of these countries. Available information provides evidence that there exist wide variations across these countries with respect to the participation of women in agriculture (Table 1). Women's participation in agriculture is high in Papua New Guinea and Fiji. Among the developing countries that report low participation of women in agriculture, labour-intensive, cash crop processing economies dominate. As such, the data may not present an accurate picture of women's work in the agriculture sector.
One reason for the underrepresentation of women in agriculture could be that the data do not account for many of women's productive activities such as home gardening and taro processing. Additionally, while women in these countries may perform agricultural and fishery work in the subsistence sector, these roles may be counted under "unpaid family workers" or as "own-account workers". Since women augment the household's ability to procure food and to achieve food security, their work in all of the aforementioned categories is extremely important to ensure household food security. Rural women's work in these categories also contributes to adding value to food through processing and storage. Their food processing skills, adding to the shelf-life of seasonal produce, contribute to the continuing supply of food during lean seasons.
The following analysis of women's work on three representative Pacific islands, drawn from various studies, illustrates the roles of women in agriculture in the region.
In Vanuatu, 1983/84 agricultural census data suggest that women are responsible for a significant proportion of agricultural and household production, since 30 percent of rural women's time was spent on productive activities other than domestic work. A similar proportion of time (over 20 percent) was spent by both women and men on subsistence agriculture and livestock. Women reported that they also spent about 4 percent of their time on cash crops (one-half of the time that men spent). Additionally, women spent 26 percent of their time on what was classified as "housework". Other available information suggests that women also have significant additional input into smallholders cash crop production. In 1989, among the women classified as economically active, 84 percent were employed in agriculture and nearly all were living in rural areas, as compared with 71 percent of men.
In Vanuatu, food security in rural households is supported by mixed farming enterprises operated by both men and women. The traditional gender division of labour seems to be followed in rural areas in Vanuatu. Clearing gardens is considered a joint activity with the heavy work usually being done by men. The planting of root crops is a joint activity, although, in many places, yams are the strict preserve of men. After planting, however, the maintenance and eventual harvesting are primarily the responsibilities of women. Women in Vanuatu tend pigs and other small livestock while men tend the cattle. Gathering of foods and reef crop fishing are usually done by women while hunting and deep water fishing are generally done by men.
Table 1 Selected indicators of human development and women's participation in agriculture and economic activities: Pacific region
|
Countries |
Human development rank HDI* |
Gender-related development GDI** |
Percentage labour force of women in agriculture: |
Employed on own account workers: percentage |
Unpaid family workers: percentage |
||
|
1996 |
1996 |
1970s |
1986 |
1994 |
1990 |
1990 |
|
|
Cook Islands |
.. |
.. |
15 |
9 |
... |
32 |
26 |
|
Fiji |
47 |
50 |
24 |
24 |
38 |
10 |
20 |
|
Papua New Guinea |
126 |
95 |
94 |
91 |
79 |
... |
... |
|
Samoa, Western |
88 |
.. |
16 |
25 |
6 |
9 |
8 |
|
Solomon Islands |
118 |
.. |
53 |
92 |
13 |
... |
... |
|
Tonga |
|
|
|
|
... |
7 |
4 |
|
Vanuatu |
119 |
.. |
|
|
5 |
... |
... |
|
Australia |
11 |
9 |
|
|
6 |
32 |
59 |
|
New Zealand |
14 |
10 |
|
|
9 |
26 |
66 |
Sources: UNDP, 1996; H. Booth, data compiled from UNSTAT 1993 in Pacific women towards year 2000, Pacific Platform for Action: Rethinking Sustainable Development for Pacific Women Towards the Year 2000, South Pacific Commission (1995); UN, 1995.*The human development index (HDI) is based on three indicators: longevity, as measured by life expectancy at birth; educational attainment as measured by combination of adult literacy (two-thirds weight) and combined primary, secondary and tertiary enrolment ratios (one-third weight); and standard of living, as measured by real GDP per caput.
**The gender development index (GDI) uses the same variables as HDI. The difference is that GDI adjusts the average achievement of each country's life expectancy, educational attainment and income in accordance with the disparity in achievement between women and men.
.. Data not available.
... Data not available or not separately reported.
Studies indicate that local and household economies in rural areas in Papua New Guinea continue to rely heavily on the productive work of women. Nearly all rural households in Papua New Guinea are engaged in subsistence production. In one study, a majority of village women (64 percent) in Papua New Guinea reported that they were mainly engaged in agricultural production where the population is overwhelmingly rural (87 percent) with the majority living in rural villages. In rural areas women have few opportunities for waged employment other than on a few coffee plantations. The division of labour has also created a situation in which rural women are increasingly relegated to subsistence food production so that men can be employed in cash-oriented sectors in the local economy or as migrant workers in distant destinations. However, the 1980 Census found that 49 percent of women also sell food occasionally, 48 percent grow coffee, 21 percent grow spices, 19 percent sell copra and a smaller proportion engage in commerce. While subsistence food production is a primary activity for women, women and men generally share decisions about which food to produce and purchase. Many wage-earning households are also engaged in agricultural production although this is unlikely to be their main source of income. These households have access to some land, river or sea and undertake food production on their own account.
Case studies done in Papua New Guinea provide information on the role of women in agriculture and emphasize the division of tasks between men and women. Studies show that women spend more time than men in food production and on domestic chores. Although studies show that children provide a minor contribution to the household labour force in most parts of the country, girls contribute more to household labour than do boys. As a result, the opportunity costs for a household for attending school are higher for a girl than a boy.
In Tonga, as in many other Pacific islands, it is well-known that women's contribution to economic activity has been underestimated. In fact, a 1980 survey found that 72 percent of women were engaged in income-generating activities. Although women do not have land rights in Tonga, they play a critical role in the agricultural production process. While men's domain is primarily in land preparation, planting and harvesting, women prepare meals for workers, distribute planting materials and, most recently, market agricultural products. Women spend between 14 and 17 hours per week on handicraft production; they receive little monetary return for such production, but earn social status and solidify their kinship network which strengthens their ability to give and receive interhousehold resource exchanges.
While men dominate cash crop production, rural women in the Pacific island countries also participate in cash crop production directly, including processing food for market. In addition, women assume greater responsibility for subsistence production activities to counter the adverse consequences of export-oriented cash crop production. There are female sugar cane farmers in Fiji but, because of their additional domestic responsibilities and lack of access to financing, they face greater difficulties than men in production for the market. Fiji women are also vanilla growers. It is considered a suitable crop for women and has been promoted as a family-oriented crop since it was introduced in 1986. In training related to vanilla, women outnumber men. In the lives of women in Fiji, two traditional crops - masi (mulberry tree) and voivo (cultured pandunus) - also play significant roles as income-generating crops and as cultural and traditional symbols.
In Vanuatu, as in most of the Pacific island countries, cash crops are considered primarily a male enterprise and subsistence crops primarily a female enterprise. However, female labour is also often partly allocated to cash crops. In fact, in one study, a higher than average proportion of time was spent on cash crops by women in regions of high cash crop production, and a lower proportion of time was spent by men in these regions on food crop production. Women spend additional time on cash crops, increasing their burden of food production. For example, in the cash crop growing region of Vanuatu, women were found to spend close to the national average proportion of time on subsistence activities and, in addition, over twice the average proportion on cash crops.
In Vanuatu, the cash economy revolves around two major crops, namely copra and cocoa. Rural households currently account for over 80 percent of copra and cocoa production. Another cash crop, kava (a plant also used for a local beverage and for pharmaceuticals), is becoming increasingly important in some areas, where it seems to be replacing copra as the preferred cash crop, and processing kava is a shared task among men and women.
In Papua New Guinea's cash crop sector in 1980, the World Bank estimates that women on the Hoskins Plantation provided up to 44 percent and children 5 percent of the oil-palm labour input. The time women spend on oil-palm harvesting is at the expense of their own food production and income-earning activities (gardening and marketing) which contribute significantly to household food security. The household food security situation becomes quite tenuous and women's role more important at times of depressed oil-palm prices, when the men withdraw themselves from oil-palm activities but do not often turn to other production activities. Women, on the other hand, spend more hours on subsistence activities to supplement the income lost from oil-palm to sustain household food security.
In Tonga, women are extensively involved in vanilla plantations, often as waged labour. Additionally, female labour is essential to the coconut processing industry.
Few quantitative data are available about the role of women in marketing and its impact on household food security. However, anecdotal information provides a glimpse into the largely informal food marketing usually done in local food markets. Women in the Pacific islands market fish, crabs, vegetables and other garden produce. In Western Samoa, women are food marketers as vendors of fresh produce as well as cooked food.
For cultural reasons it seems local food is only marketed in a very limited way, although imported food has a good distribution system through the rural cooperatives. For example, even though most rural communities in Vanuatu overproduce staple foods, there has been a high level of food imports in the Vanuatu economy for some time. One important reason for the consumption of food imports is the absence of a local food distribution and marketing system. Often, the income generated as a result of food marketing is used to buy imported food. Women living on resettlement schemes in Papua New Guinea admitted that the prime incentive for marketing vegetables is the purchase of store food and other household goods. A 1983 survey on the Hoskins Oil-palm Scheme in Papua New Guinea showed that women obtained income through the sale of vegetables. Their sales of food at market constituted 60 percent of total food garden production, which was 24 percent of average household income (World Bank 1980). In Fiji, women sell their own fish and, in some cases, the catches of their husbands and other male relatives.
In Pacific communities where fishing is done, women's contribution to fishing is at least as significant as the contribution of men. Women are often responsible for the marketing and distribution of fish in the Pacific region. Women are also an important link between low-income undernourished consumers and fish products. Hence, a potential exists to provide support to enhance women's skills to help them to enter the commercial fishery sector and increase their economic potential. Currently, women in the Pacific islands are active in the artisan fishery sector as fisherwomen and in post-harvest processing in the commercial sector.
In those Pacific island communities where fishing is a major part of the local subsistence and cash economy, there is typically a division of labour between men and women. The men fish from canoes and boats in deep water, and women glean the reefs, shores and swamps for a variety of edible species. In many communities women also use fish traps, nets and hand lines to catch fish in lagoons and tidal pools. In the more populated areas, women clean and market fish caught by men, as well as their own catches. Studies in the Pacific region document that women in Papua New Guinea and Fiji are involved in subsistence fish captured in shallow-water reefs, and lagoon and estuary areas for both barter and household consumption. They are also involved in post-harvest activities such as cleaning, soaking and salting fish. In Fiji, freshwater clam collection and saltwater crab fishing are done by women. In the Solomon Islands, one study documents that the livelihood of the Marovo people depends on the coastal resources and the extensive indigenous knowledge of fishermen and fisherwomen related to fish variety, including species, habitats and fishing methods. Women are also represented in Tonga's seaweed farming ventures.
Government fishery development efforts in the region often overlook the key role women play in the fishery sector. A common underlying cause for such an omission is the perception that women's fishery activities and catch are economically insignificant. Compared with the ocean zones, the commercial potential of most inshore areas of the Pacific islands (women's zones) is minimal. However these are the zones in which the most subsistence fishing is done. Such an official perception ignores the crucial contribution of women's fishery activities to household food security. Another effect of the overemphasis on the commercial fishing industry is the increasing dependence on imported protein sources which adds to the household's resource generation demand to ensure economic access for food.
In Pacific island countries, women contribute to household food security through their social networks and strong communal ties. Transfers (an interhousehold gift expected from or given to a neighbors or family member) provide an influential means through which women can determine the income of poorer households, by giving to households other than their own. Additionally, transfers broaden women's resource base, particularly that of women heads of household who engage in production activities. These transfers also provide insurance in times of strife and are one way women participate in the social life of their community.
For example, nearly all households in Papua New Guinea receive some form of transfer which increases their economic access to food. In rural areas access to food for the aged and the chronically ill is particularly dependent on transfers. In communities of high outmigration, transfers from family members in town to rural family members account for a major part of household income. For the most part, interhousehold transfers in rural areas are small and in kind; garden produce, fresh fish, cooked food and shared meals are all items usually under the sole domain of women. Additionally, family members who have migrated overseas continue to uphold family obligations and transfer funds although, with a new generation growing up in distant lands, such traditional social obligations may weaken.
Information on rural women's access to productive resources is drawn from the very limited and scattered documentation available. The ensuing discussion is, therefore, qualitative and gives examples from three Pacific islands for illustrative purposes. It is clear, however, that women's inability to access certain productive resources in the Pacific region has serious implications for food security.
Customary law established centuries ago, perpetuated by tradition and supported by colonial administrative systems prevents women from owning and gaining access to land in many Pacific island countries. In Vanuatu, no formal legislation prevents women from owning, leasing or trading property, or restricts credit availability to women. However, customary law prevails. Consequently, despite their considerable contribution to agricultural production, women's lack of access to land in Vanuatu is compounded by their lack of access to rural services and credit facilities. Credit facilities and services are targeted almost exclusively to males and directed mainly towards the cash cropping sector. As of 1991, there were no female agricultural extension officers and the Vanuatu Credit Union no longer offered credit for what they termed "subsistence activities". Since the areas of production that are the traditional purview of women are ignored, women are denied equitable access to economic development opportunities.
Laws aggravate women's already limited access to productive resources in Tonga. Despite the significant economic role they play in Tonga, women may not own land. However, women actually manage the land in situations where males have migrated. All land technically belongs to the King who has allocated it to 35 nobles or the government. Customary allocations of land to all males over 16 creates pressure on land resources from the growing population. The World Bank (1986) estimates that by the year 2000, at current population rates, about 90 percent of eligible males will be landless. Even more importantly, land pressure is a constraint to agriculture in the country - fallow periods have become shorter, crop yields are decreasing and land pressure is becoming cumulative.
In Papua New Guinea, while women play an important role in agriculture, they have not always been able to use that role to generate income on a regular basis because of lack of control over land and lack of recognition of their contribution to commercial agriculture.
5.1 Imported food and household food security
5.2 Natural resource degradation
5.3 Linkages among land pressure, soil fertility and food security
5.4. Plantation economy and migration
5.5 Resettlement schemes, household resource allocation and food security
Changes in trade exchanges, labour demand, migration, degradation of ecological resources and inclement weather affect women's role in the food sector and consequently have implications for food security. The macrotransformations that have an impact on rural women and household food security are examined in this section.
Increasing dependence on imported food in Pacific island countries has an impact on the household food budget as well as on nutritional security throughout the region. As a result, improving rural women's ability to generate income to acquire imported food and increasing their nutritional knowledge are major concerns. Imported food is consumed on a large scale in Vanuatu, including in the rural areas. In fact, Vanuatu has one of the highest per caput consumption's of rice in the Pacific region. The 1984 agricultural census showed that rice provided an average of 13 percent of the daily per caput calorie requirements of Vanuatu. The agricultural census found that expenditure per rural household on imported food was far higher in major export crop producing regions in Vanuatu. However, rural household expenditure on imported food is often on the level of the national average even in areas where cash crop production is low. This suggests that income is generated from internal sources of cash crop production consumed in-country (mainly kava) or that transfers from urban dwellers to their islands of origin are providing sufficient cash for imported food purchase. In general, rural consumption of imported foods does not seem to be balanced by export crop production.
The exploitation of natural resources in the Pacific island countries seems to know no bounds. Its effects threaten to diminish women's already marginalized role in maintaining household food security, thereby threatening food security across the region. The degradation takes many forms: soil fertility, deforestation, reef degradation, natural disasters and decreased soil fertility.
Deforestation
The uncontrolled clearing of forests and marginal lands affects women's access to the fuel resources, traditional wild foods and medicinal plants that they traditionally gather from the forests. Deforestation causes the continued erosion of topsoil, increasing sedimentation in the water supply and harming the region's water resources. The damage affects island watersheds and the availability of water supplies to meet the demands of the increasing population (i.e. domestic, industrial, agricultural and hydroelectric demands).
Reef degradation
As reef resources are used by women for subsistence fishing, the destruction and pollution of the reef threatens women's ability to ensure food security. For example, in Port Vila, Vanuatu, large tourist resorts have been built on the shores of the harbor and lagoon. Without a proper sewage system, the water is becoming contaminated by seepage from septic tanks and waste from visiting yachts. As a result, the areas used by women for shellfish collection are highly contaminated.
Natural disasters
Natural disasters in the Pacific islands abound and compound existing human-induced environmental damage. Such disasters introduce a seasonal vulnerability to household food security. Inclement tropical weather can destroy the agricultural assets on which the cash crop economy depends. In addition, the loss of home gardening crops and other farming systems challenges women to ensure food security during cyclone-prone seasons.
Loss of soil quality and erosion of fertile topsoil have emerged as major problems resulting from excessive use of chemical fertilizers, overuse of groundwater resources, shortened fallow periods (because shifting cultivators are coming under population pressure), uncontrolled logging operations and slope farming. The unpredictable weather in the region, including tropical cyclones and heavy rains, causes continued depletion of the vegetation cover. The continued loss of soil not only affects inland resources but also degrades the sea resources through the levels of increased sedimentation.
Where land pressure exists in Vanuatu, loss of soil fertility and overuse of land could lead to an increased dependence on imported food. In some high population density areas, the problem is being mitigated by migration. However, since the bulk of that migration is to urban areas, it does not contribute to national food security. In Tonga, relative land pressure is an emerging problem in areas with higher population densities. Lack of access to alternative land, combined with soil fertility depletion, have increased the use of alternative production methods and crops lower in nutritional value. Additionally, the greater demand on input factors in food production in regions with land pressure may be a significant factor in the consumption of imported food by those who have access to cash.
In some Pacific areas, the development of the plantation economy has had a negative effect on women's productive activities. Since plantation and timber companies are not obliged to provide housing for the families of married workers, women migrating with husbands who are employees of these companies are often forced to live in informal settlements, with very limited access to company land for growing subsistence crops. Since these companies hire few women, the women have almost no means of earning income or providing subsistence and therefore become very dependent on men's earnings. The situation is not much better for women who remain behind when their husbands migrate for employment; their workload increases but their output does not. With an increased work burden and lack of assistance in the fields, women are left with no time to clear new plots of land resulting in a long-term decline in their crop yields. Women across the Pacific region report increasing demands on their time and their inability to meet household demands or home garden production responsibilities.
Government resettlement schemes not only discriminate against women by continuing to deny them access to productive resources but, in many cases, also negatively affect women's ability to perform subsistence agriculture and provide food for their families by promoting the use of cash crops.
In Papua New Guinea, women's subordinate position in resettlement schemes is clearly reflected in ownership patterns. The number of women who are sole legal owners of settlement blocks is insignificant; between 1 and 4 percent of leases are held by women on most schemes. Moreover, this small percentage of women only gained ownership through the deaths of husbands and not through the process of selection. Since women are rarely recognized as heads of household, they have rarely been granted leases. The result of this pattern of excluding women renders them powerless to change the system.
Cash cropping and subsistence agriculture conflict in the allocation of both land and labour. Since the best and most accessible land is increasingly used for cash crops, subsistence gardens are pushed further from residential areas to more marginal land (e.g. slopes). In Vanuatu, the agricultural census found that longer than average travel time to food gardens was reported by households in regions with low per caput land availability and households in regions with significant cash crop production.
6.1 Government-sponsored support
6.2 Women's organizations' support for women
There are increasing efforts by donor agencies to both government and non-governmental organizations to support local initiatives for women in their varied contributions to island economies. While important efforts exist in the islands, there is still much to be done to ensure women's full participation in the economy and to enhance their role in maintaining food security. A brief profile of the types of support that currently exist follows.
Table 2 A brief overview of women's organizations in small island countries, Pacific region
|
Country |
Government focal point |
NGO focal point |
NGOs listed |
NGO activities (an illustrative) |
NGO |
|
Cook Islands |
Division |
Cook Island |
18 |
Social welfare |
Church interests |
|
Fiji |
Department of woman and Culture, |
Fiji National |
34 |
Education |
Ethnic and cultural groups |
|
Papua |
Women Affairs |
Papua New Guinea |
39 |
Social welfare |
Oil company |
|
Solomon Islands |
Women's Development Division |
National Council of Woman |
16 |
Farming, vegetable |
Church |
|
Tonga |
Woman's Affairs Unit |
Langafonuaia and Fefine Tonga (Woman's Council) |
8 |
Language |
Church |
|
Vanuatu |
Department of Culture, Religion, Woman's Archives |
Vanuatu National |
50 |
Religion |
Church |
|
Western Samoa |
Ministry of Woman's Affairs |
- |
26 |
Religion |
Church |
Source: South Pacific Commission and Pacific Women's Resource Bureau, 1993.
In Tonga, one positive development has been loans from the banking system to women through a special women's development fund. However, the extent to which this lending has enhanced women's incomes and induced non-traditional income-generating activities is not known. The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in Tonga operates a programme for rural women (including in the outer islands) through the extension division. The programme involves a wide range of activities including training, home economics, sanitation and income-earning work. However, there is no assessment of the effectiveness of this programme. In Fiji, 16 female extension officers are employed in various divisions within the Ministry of Agriculture. There is little or no emphasis on the role of women in agricultural production, and the women extension agents are engaged in the same extension work as that of the male staff. However, female extension officers are well-received by the community and often prove to be more reliable than their male counterparts. It is interesting to note that women trainees have been involved in vanilla and cocoa training courses and that they outnumber males in vanilla training courses.
An informal analysis of women's organizations was done to assess their support to rural women in the Pacific island countries, as presented in Table 2. Currently, all the island countries have an established government focal point which is affiliated with ministries associated with welfare and cultural aspects of national affairs. Similarly, all these countries have an organized nongovernment focal point although some seem to have government patronage.
A large number of women's organizations have come into existence since the 1980s. Their numbers vary with the size of the island countries. The sponsorships and social affiliations of the organizations are also diverse. Many are organized around the church, social networks, and ethnic and cultural affiliations. In Vanuatu, the local organizations developed as local chapters of the National Council to serve individual island-based communities. Their activities are generally focused on social welfare and the cultural and domestic responsibilities of women.
Across the countries, the boundaries between the domestic sphere and economic activities are rather blurred in subsistence production systems. Hence, the NGO activities centre on both domestic and production spheres. Some agriculture and fishery-associated training are organized through these organizations, but these are not their major emphases. In addition, the fact that national women's focal points are placed under welfare-oriented organizations in national governments can serve selected cultural and social needs of women but may not provide needed assistance in the agricultural, livestock and fishery sectors to increase their productivity (Table 2).
This chapter, based on a desk review of material, illustrates vividly the diverse and multiple roles of women in the food and agricultural sectors in the Pacific island countries. Women are food producers and fisherwomen in their own right and ensure an adequate food basket for household food security through food production, marketing and exchange. Their contribution in the commercial sector in crop production and post-harvest processing in crops and fisheries make them key participants in these island economies. Yet, the current inadequacy of information on the role women play and their inability to gain access to productive resources do not do justice to their contribution to household food security. While development efforts have begun to focus attention on rural women's roles, there is still a long way to go. These recommendations are directed to strengthening the efforts to support and enhance rural women's contribution to household food security.
The recommendations are derived from an analysis of rural women's roles in the agricultural and food sectors and their roles in ensuring household food security.
1 Improve the database on women's roles in the Pacific island countries by: i) developing an information base of the existing studies and national statistics; ii) identifying data gaps for policy-planning and programme development; and iii) supporting data collection activities applying consistent and comparable measures across the island countries.2 Support systematic documentation of shifts in women's role in household crop production systems caused by land pressure and the degradation of soil fertility.
3 Support activities in the region to assess the existing extension outreach systems to identify the current status of women's access to training needs in agriculture and allied production and the constraints they face, to develop effective intervention measures.
4 Strengthen ongoing efforts to educate policy-makers, fishery and agriculture officers and outreach agents on the importance of integrating women as partners in development processes to improve household food security.
5 Identify methods to synthesize government and NGO services in order to strengthen women's organizations' training efforts to increase the economic productivity of women.
6 Enlist the support of women's organizations to educate their members on the impact of degrading natural resources on household food security, on their economic opportunity and on the measures to conserve natural resources.
7 Assess the existing agricultural production, trade policies and natural resource management policies to identify ways of strengthening women's participation in these sectors. Based on the identified need, provide policy advice support for the integration of women/gender-sensitive planning.
8 Identify the opportunities to strengthen women's economic opportunities in the food processing and food marketing sectors, agribusiness and food distribution cooperatives.
9 Increase women's access to credit. Educate women to use credit skillfully in order to develop economically viable small enterprises such as cash crop production and processing.
10 With the assistance and collaboration of government service agencies, increase women's access to agricultural inputs for subsistence agriculture and fishery enterprises.
11 Assess the technology needs of women to increase their productivity in home production.
12 Improve women's economic opportunities by developing their skills in post-harvest handling of vegetables, fruits and fish to improve their marketing potential.
South Pacific Commission Pacific Women's Resource Bureau (1993) Pacific Women's Directory: A Guide to 500 Women's Organizations in the South Pacific, New Caledonia: Resource Bureau.
UNDP (1996) Human Development Report 1996. Oxford: OUR
UN (1995) The World's Women 1995, Trends and Statistics, Social Statistics and Indicators. NY: UN.
