Research

I finished my research at IRRAD, and while I’m still working with my supervisor there on finalizing my paper (there will be one version on which he is the coauthor for in-house publication, and one version that’s entirely my own for my purposes), these are my conclusions:

The regional level investigation of food security found that on the whole, the commercial region (Agon and Rangala Rajpur) can be said to be more food secure than the subsistence region (Kotla and Uletha).  Farming households located in the commercial region have higher incomes (both from agriculture and non-farm employment), higher yields and total production, less yield variability, have more diversified cropping patterns and are able to spend more on food consumption.  Still, the volume of food available to households is approximately the same in both regions, and the average diet is heavily dependent on staple foods.  Therefore, it cannot be said that either region is food secure, since widespread micronutrient deficiencies are suspected based on reported food intake.

Size of landholding was found to be the most important determinant of household level food security.  Households with a larger plot of land at their disposal are able to provide for their own subsistence crop needs as well as diversify into growing other crops, including the ability to allocate a larger portion of land to cash crop production.  Thus, having a larger landholding allows farmers to be responsive to market signals while remaining relatively insulated to crop failures and market instability compared to farmers with less land.  These households are able to purchase more food from the market, consume more food overall, yet they spend a smaller percentage of their income on food.

                Women in this region were found to have much lower literacy rates than men.  The number of women who had gone to school was four times less than the number of men who had been to school, but educated women had attained levels of education comparable and even higher than that of men in the commercial region.  Very few women work outside of their household’s domain, they are generally responsible for livestock rearing and food preparation, they work approximately the same number of hours in the field as men, and no women owned land.  It was found that gender relations are generally more equitable in the subsistence region than in the commercial region, as women there have more power in production decisions and households generally eat together, versus having women eat last.  This study found little support for existing gender theory as it relates to food security; households in which men had more power in production decisions and worked more in the fields were more food secure.  Regarding the individual food security of women, male education is correlated with women eating more compared to their husbands, and the presence of an income-earning woman is more common in households where women consume relatively more.  Most importantly, this study found that women’s status or women’s food security does not improve as household income or household level food security improves.

The study that I did at IRRAD was based on a survey of the head of household and his wife in 120 households across four villages.  Needless to say, this was a wonderful experience, and I wouldn’t have been able to do it without enormous support staff and resources provided free of charge by IRRAD.  I will post the final paper when it is ready.

Here at ICRISAT, my research is based on a world-famous database, containing information from surveys with the same 40 households in six villages between the years 1975-1984 and from 2001-onward.  It is focused on evaluating the socioeconomic status of women in those villages and what impact agricultural modernization has had specifically on women.  My supervisor here said that it is a priority project, since little gender analysis has been done with this data.  It’s a huge amount of information, so I’ve been mining through it with Excel.  Soon I’ll start planning for focus group discussions in the villages.  The closest two villages are about 70 kilometers away and the farthest are 300 kilometers from ICRISAT, so my research here will involve some travel.