1. Gender, Agriculture and Assets Project
(GAAP) under the Cereal Systems Initiative in
South Asia
in Evaluating the Impacts of Agricultural Development
Programming on Gender Inequalities, Asset Disparities and
Rural Livelihoods
Mid Term Workshop-Nov 3-6, 2011
BRAC Centre, Rajendrapur
Thelma Paris, Valerian Pede, Joyce Luis
and Abha Singh

2. CSISA
• Cereal System Initiative for South Asia
• Funded by Bill and Melinda Gates and
USAID (IRRI, CIMMYT, ILRI, IFPRI, NARES)
– India
– Bangladesh
– Nepal
– Pakistan
• CSISA expansion Bangladesh
– Funded by USAID

3. CSISA’s goal
• Increase food and income security through
– accelerated development and deployment of new
cereal varieties
– sustainable crop and resource systems management
practices and better access to information
• This goal will be difficult to achieve if wide
gender inequities to key assets persist as
major constraints to adoption of
technologies.

4. Promoted technologies
• Resources Conserving Technologies
(RCT)
– Direct seeding
– Zero tillage
– Laser land leveler
– Residue management
– Quality fodder
– Improved crop varieties

5. Key questions that we would like to address as
part of this GAAP Initiative:
• What assets (tangible and intangible) are important
to men and women in order to sustain their
livelihoods?
• Who has access to and control (how assets were
acquired, who makes decision on when, how to
use/dispose) over these key assets/resources?
• What are the current effects or anticipated effects of
the technologies/interventions under CSISA project
on men and women’s access to and control of these
key assets?
• How do women and men respond or adjust due to
changes in the assets as a result of project
interventions introduced by the CSISA project?

6. Selection of villages: Baseline survey
HUB
District 1 District 2 District 3
Block 1 Block 2 Block 3 Block 1 Block 2 Block 3 Block 1 Block 2 Block 3
C NC C NC C NC C NC C NC C NC C NC C NC C NC
1 Hub
3 Districts
3 Blocks
9 CSISA villages (C)
9 non-CSISA villages (NC)

7. Proposed study sites
Districts CSISA Non-CSISA Total
/No of Villages
villages
Kushinagar 1 1 2
Deoria 1 1 2
E.Champaran 1 1 2

8. Study sites
Map of India Map of Uttar Pradesh
Districts:
Siddhartnagar
Maharajganj
Gorakhpur

9. Methods of collection of information
on assets
• Interviews using structured
questionnaire – either husband and wife
in the same household
• Use of pictures of assets – separately for
husband and wife in the same
household

10. Physical assets

11. Natural, social, financial and human
assets
Natural Social
Financial Human

12. Use of pictures
• The set of pictures was given to the
husband/wife
• The husband/wife was asked to choose from
the pictures the assets that he/she owns and
have access to
• The assets chosen were placed in the first pile
while the rest were placed in a second pile
• The assets in the first pile were noted down in
the form

13. Qualitative method
Form
Pictures of assets

14. Assets owned or have access to
• The husband/wife was asked to choose the top
10 most important assets
• The husband/wife was asked to rank the top 10
assets where 1 is the most important and 10 is
the least important
• The husband/wife was asked specific questions
on the top 10 assets

15. Questions on ownership
accessibility/attendance
• Whose name is written in the land title, bankbook
• Who spends or keeps the money
• Who owns or takes care of the animals
• Who uses or has access to irrigation water or machines
• Who attends to meetings or trainings
• Who buys in the convenience or agricultural shop
• Who has a degree and works for a living
• Who is a member of an association

16. Assets owned or have access to
• The husband/wife was asked who make
decisions in disposing assets that they own
• The husband/wife was asked the reason
why these assets are the top 3 most
important assets

17. Gender difference in asset
ownership
• Type of family – absolute nuclear and
joint families
• Caste – Upper, backward and others
• Type of farm ownership – marginal,
small and large

18. Succession of land
Other relatives as brother/nephew
Father Son Grandson
In case of more land

19. If husband Wife Son
expired, a
case in a Daughter
nuclear family (if there is no son)

20. Initial analysis
• Computation of the mean average rank of the
assets owned or have access to by the
husband and wife
• Frequency count of ownership, accessibility,
attendance and decision making of assets
disposal by husband/wife
• Gender difference in mean rank and
frequency counts were analyzed by caste,
type of family and type of farm

21. Initial findings
• Farm land is basically owned by male head of the
family and title of land is under Male
head/Father
• In joint families, large animals are owned by
male head
• In nuclear families, husband and wife make
decisions on how to dispose large animals
• Ownership and animal care including decision
making of small ruminants is generally done
by women
• Assets as Farm land, house, large animals and
machinery decisions were generally taken by
male heads of family in all castes specially in
Upper castes however in nuclear families and
other castes decision taken jointly

22. Initial findings (cont’d)
• Important assets ranked by men and women
respondents are Farm Land, House, Cash in hand,
Savings and machinery
• Household assets were used by whole family but
disposal of assets generally decided by head male and
female
• Women are owner and user of gold and silver
jewelries but decision related to disposal is generally
taken by female /wife and jointly in case of nuclear
family
• Big machines as tractor, diesel pump, LSTs and
motorcycles are owned and used by Male heads
/members of household and decisions regarding
disposal is taken by male heads

23. Women’s participation in
decision making, EUP
•Women are involved in decision making in
crop and livestock productions
•There are areas where women joins the
husband or other household members in
making decisions
•However, there are also areas where
women fully participates in making
decisions

24. Women’s participation in
decision making, EUP
Areas where majority of the women
reported to have full participation are:
•Employing labor in the farm
•Managing livestock feeding
•Managing milk
•Deciding on use of dung as fuel

25. Women’s participation in
decision making, EUP
Areas where majority of the women
reported to have partial participation are:
•Selecting crop varieties
•Purchasing machinery
•Adopt technology
•Selling grains
•Deciding what to feed livestock
•Sale of livestock

26. Female heads in EUP
• Most of the households interviewed are
male headed households
• Female heads meet the extension worker
at least once a year
• Female heads do not have access to
training

27. Women’s participation in
decision making (%)
Activities Full Partial
Selecting crop varieties 12 49
Purchasing machinery 7 37
Adopt technology 8 32
Employing labors in farm 28 24
Selling grains 6 30
Selling of crop residue 8 19
Using crop residues as feed 15 21
Deciding what to feed livestock 30 33
Managing livestock feeding 33 28
Managing milking 35 15
Decision on sale of milk 15 18
Deciding on use of milk income 11 19
Deciding on sale of livestock 11 29
Deciding on use of dung as fuel 33 12
Deciding on lease/share of land 7 11
Deciding on sale of land 7 10

28. Successes
• Use of assets pictures was effective
– excitement of women to respond
– encourage other women to participate
– empower women to express themselves
– enhance capacity of social scientists
• Open doors to other gender issues
related to promotion of technologies
• Involvement of husband and wife

29. Timeline (2011)
May - October (last Selecting the villages and establishing rapport
week) with village leaders, households, men and
women; Preparation for logistical
arrangements, local assistants for PRA
etcQualitative work to explore concepts of
gender access to assets in 6 villages in
November Mahrajganj, Deoria and E. Champaran (CSISA
and non-CSISA)
Nov -Dec Presentation of results based on qualitative
GAAP in workshop in Bangladesh
Analysis and drafting of report based on
qualitative work;
Submission of 1st working paper using
qualitative information Development of gender
asset gap questionnaire and pre-testing;
Nov - Dec Revision of 1st working paper for publication;
Training of enumerators, finalization of the
questionnaire; preparation of midline surveys

30. Time line (2012)
2012 Jan –June -Conduct of midline surveys of 324
farming households in villages for
which baseline information exists,
including GAAP questions;
--Editing of questionnaires will be
done as soon as data have been
collected for quick validation of
results; training of date encoders;
data entry;
July – Sept -Analysis of quantitative data;
- Generation of descriptive tables
Oct – Dec
Analysis of both qualitative and
quantitative information