A Missing Ingredient for Increasing Agricultural Productivity and Food Security: Labor Saving Technologies for Women

A Missing Ingredient for Increasing Agricultural Productivity and Food Security: Labor Saving Technologies for Women

Dr. Marilyn Carr, Development Economist
Author of Technology, Policy and Poverty Reduction and Contributor to the Gender in Agricultural Livelihoods Sourcebook (both forthcoming)

Tuesday, 20 May 2008
12:30 pm – 2:00 pm
Location: Congressional Hunger Center Hall of the States Building 400 North Capitol Street, NW Suite G-100

Please RSVP by Monday, 12 May to Thomas Pesek @ 202-331-9099 or t.pesek@ifad.org

The growing global food crisis has increased the urgency of boosting farm and non-farm rural productivity. Labor constraints and time poverty represent major impediments to productivity increases, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. There, agriculture accounts for approximately 30 percent of GDP, 40 percent of overall exports, and as much as 70 percent of employment, and rural women provide an estimated three-fourths of the labor for food production. In addition to farm work, rural women are burdened with the responsibilities of household chores and earning additional money to supplement family income. They often work 16 hours per day, using traditional technologies which are labor-intensive and time consuming.

What improvements could be achieved in farm and non-farm productivity in sub-Saharan Africa through labor-saving technologies and practices for rural women? What insights and lessons can be applied from efforts to date that would achieve greater improvements in productivity from such labor-saving technology and practices? Dr. Carr will address these questions and discuss what needs to be done to overcome constraints that have limited the diffusion of existing labor-saving technologies. She will also consider how lessons can be learned from past experience when developing and diffusing technologies that aim to address women’s time and energy poverty.

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This luncheon is part of a periodic seminar series focused on issues of gender, agriculture and natural resource management. The series is co-sponsored by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and the World Bank.

Please note that the Congressional Hunger Center is located in the Hall of States, which requires a government issued photo identification check-in at the front desk.