Farm & Family Balance Study: the intra-household and gender dynamics of cash-cropping

2016-10-31

2017-04-30

Outcomes of interest include women’s bargaining power within the home, crop management and production, fulfillment of production contracts, the intra-household allocation of profits, household food security, and child welfare.

Half of the households enrolled in the study will be randomly assigned to be invited to a couples-based participatory training that focuses on recognizing contributions of each member and arriving at a balanced approach to household (or farm) management and access to resources. The training will be based on the Gender Action Learning System (GALS) methodology developed by Oxfam Novib in Uganda and executed by experienced, local GALS trainers. The goal of the workshop intervention is two-fold. First, it may have a large impact on its own, by altering the way in which spouses communicate and organize their households to become more inclusive and, in particular, involve women in sugarcane production. Although relative bargaining power should not be directly affected by the workshop, it may affect the bargaining process itself. Additionally, the training may act to lower informational barriers within the household, thereby directly affecting household choices. Second, the training is expected to encourage take-up of the contract intervention.

Within each workshop assignment arm (treatment and control), half of households will be assigned to receive a contract intervention. The contract intervention will entail household visits by specially-trained staff to remind/inform each farmer that he is allowed to transfer one or more of his contracts into the name of his wife at any time. Farmers can also register in the wife’s name any unregistered blocks. This would entitle the wife to inputs, cash advances, and the final payment. The project will facilitate the paperwork to make these transfers easy and pay the small costs associated with these transfers. The project will additionally offer an in-kind “household gift” incentive of approximately $30 in value to households who take-up the contract intervention. Given the important nature of the contract transfer decision, project staff will make up to three visits to selected households to complete the transfer process to give families the time they desire to make the decision of whether or not to participate.

This intervention acts to increase relative bargaining power among women to whom contracts are transferred, thereby resulting in production and consumption decisions that more closely mirror her preferences. By bringing women into an area of household activity in which they previously had little to no role, information asymmetries may also be reduced, causing less income to be hidden and diverted from consumption and investment decisions that are mutually agreed upon as part of the household bargaining process.

Based on the results of the pilot, we expect take-up of the workshop intervention to be 98% and we expect take-up of the contract intervention to be about 65% among those not invited to workshops and 95% among those who were invited to workshops.

Randomization by computer

Household

No

400 villages

2,400 households

600 households per arm (4 arms in a 2x2 design)