Assessment of Gender Division of Labor in Farming Activities: The Case of West Dembiya Woreda, Amhara, Ethiopia

Abstract

This study deals with assessment on gender division of labor in farming activities. It was conducted in three randomly selected kebeles in West Denbya woreda. A total of 204 households were selected assample using cluster and subsequent lottery sampling technique by considering proportional to size of each kebele. Structured questionnaire, Interview and focus group discussions were used to collect quantitative and qualitative primary data. The quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. Descriptive statistics such as mean, frequencies, one sample t-test and graphs were employed. Whereas qualitative data interpretation such as narration was employed to analyze the qualitative data collected through the open-ended questions. Qualitative data was described, interpreted and set using narration. The analysishas revealed the fact that women were less educated and relatively poor in endowment of crucial resources such as land, crop and labor, while they were better access and control over resources and benefits, whereas productive resources and benefits were vested on the male households. Though women have a vital role to play in crops production, they were not as such considered as farmers and their contribution is undermined by communities, thus women in particular had no contact with the development agents and access to formal sources of credit and improved technologies was very limited. Based on the above findings, it is recommended that, improve the attitudes of societies towards womens’ participation in farming activities, gender equality awareness creation training should be provided for farm households. Female farm households should be involved in decision making process that has the potential to introduce structural changes. Appropriate facilities should be provided to rural women for land, agricultural and livestock extension services. Financial institutions should provide financial credit to households to help them fulfill their agricultural in puts.