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Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations UN Complex, Pulchowk, Nepal June 2010
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II. Objective ............................................................................................................................ 2 III.Methods .............................................................................................................................. 2 IV. Situation Analysis of Gender in Agriculture ...................................................................... 2 4.1Participation in Agriculture Sector ............................................................................ 4 4.1.1 Farm Production Activities ............................................................................... 5 4.1.2 Labour Management Activities......................................................................... 6 4.1.3 Food Security and Nutrition.............................................................................. 7 4.2 Access to and Decision-making / Control over Resources and Benefits ..................... 8 4.2.1 4.2.2 4.2.3 4.2.4 4.2.5 4.2.6 4.2.7 Land .................................................................................................................. 9 Water ................................................................................................................. 9 Livestock ......................................................................................................... 11 Marketing, Income and Savings ..................................................................... 11 Extension Service/Training ............................................................................. 12 Technology ..................................................................................................... 12 Membership in Informal/Formal Institution ................................................... 13
4.3 Feminization in Agriculture ....................................................................................... 13 V. Gender Integration in National Policy and Plans ............................................................. 14 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 VI. Policy and Constitution ............................................................................................. 14 National Development Plans ..................................................................................... 15 Major Issues .............................................................................................................. 23 Challenges ................................................................................................................. 29 Opportunities ............................................................................................................. 30 Identified Gaps .......................................................................................................... 32
I. Background
Almost 86% of the total population of Nepal (27 million) reside in rural Nepal. In recent years, there has been a fast growth in urban population. The trend of growth in urban area was 2.8% from 1981 to 1991 and reached up to 4.7% in 2001. This clearly shows a flow of immigrants from rural to urban areas. In most Asian countries, rural to urban migration still dominates because of the higher proportion of the population living in rural areas and various factors including global climate change and its adverse affect on agricultural sector. This demonstrates a decreasing trend in agricultural employment and increasing importance of non-farm work for income security. However, this flow is basically of men who outnumber women in urban areas. On the other hand, women who constitutes half of the total population of Nepal, exceeds men by 7.5% in rural areas. Apart from socio-cultural constraints, inadequate basic infrastructure and resources in rural areas marginalized mostly girls and women in accessing resources and getting benefit from the opportunities. For example, adult literacy rate of Nepalese women is 38.4% as compare to 69.7% of men which is further lower for rural women i.e. 34.3% (HDR, 2009). Likewise, female-headed household has reached up to 22% in 2008 from 14% in 2001. The low HDI (0.553) ranked Nepal at 144th position out of 182 countries, indicating a low life expectancy at birth, low educational attainment, and low income. Furthermore, it illustrates situation of Nepal in human development context. The lower value of GDI (0.545) as compare to HDI demonstrates gender disparities within human development, which ranked Nepal at 144th position. According to CBS 2009, women participation in economic activities is 55.2% versus 71.6% of men indicating a poor status of Nepalese women and existence of a challenge to meet gender equality in the country. In fact, women are involved more in non-productive activities such as in household chores and other farm activities which do not account value for their work. Likewise, Nepal ranks 83rd out of 109 countries in the GEM with a value of 0.486 in 2006 (HDR, 2009). Poor participation of women in local election and insignificant number of women in professional and administrative work as compared to men has put Nepal among the lowest-ranking countries. In addition, this also reflects exclusion of women in decision-making and control over resources. An unequal human development is due to both cause and effect of exclusion (HDR, 2009). Despite there being a significant improvement in HDI in recent years, inequality still persists in literacy rates, per capita income, opportunities for
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This report is prepared by Dr. Milan Adhikary, FAO Consultant for the NMTPF Formulation Team.
participation, and access to resources across regions, caste, ethnic groups, and gender. The extent of relative deprivation of the people in the rural areas, dalits and janjatis, and Muslims of Terai region is higher in comparison to urban area and other ethnic groups residing in hills and mountains. During the last few years, nation-wide poverty has decreased by more than 20%; however, the rate of decrease has been very unequal across the ethnic groups and caste, which further widens the gap between rich and poor. The incidence of poverty is reported to be greater in case of agricultural-wage laborer who are landless, illiterate and have a large family size. Since womens access to the household assets and other productive resources is limited throughout the country, poor women outnumber poor men irrespective of regions, caste, and ethnic groups (HDR 2009).
II. Objective
The general objective of this study is to analyse the situation of gender in agriculture sector and provide input on its integration for formulation of National Medium Term Policy Framework (NMTPF). Specific objectives are: