- 16 -

2.07 Agricultural roles do not always follow expected patterns. The generalization that women produce food crops while men engage in cash cropping does not always hold. Women tend increasingly to do both, and food crops can also be marketed. As women seek income-earning opportunities to supplement their own production, they are taking jobs as hired labor on larger farms and engaging in cash cropping -- for example, in Malawi and Zimbabwe. Gender roles in agriculture can also change in response to relative returns to labor. There is considerable evidence, for example, that when a new technology makes an activity more profitable, men will take over the activity. A case in point was in The Gambia, where the introduction of irrigation turned swamp rice from a women's to a men's crop (von Braun and Webb 1987).

2.08 Control over Resources. While it is important to generate genderdisaggregated data on the work performed by household members in designing agricultural extension programs for women, it is equally important to know who owns or controls factors of production, crops, or income derived from the sale of produce. Extension planners need to understand that women are most likely to invest time and resources in production when they retain control of the harvested crop.

# rase **¶5: CA&EROeN:** CONTROL **OVER REStUUCES** AND **HOUSEHOL** SARGAINING

The issues of controa over resources and the conflicting interests of men and women have been documented in a study of rice production in the Cameroon. This study found evidence of altocative inefficiency in household production decisions that resulted in suboptimat production of the cash crop and faiture to maximize income. This coutd be explained by the compensation women received for their labor. Revenues from the sale of rlce were traditionally controlLed by men, although women were expected to contribute their labor. Women derived income from the sale of subsistence crops, the returns for which were considerably tower thon for rice. Wives were wilting to work on rice only when they were compensated for their labor according to the market value of their product, or at least well above what they coutd expect from subsistence crops. Otherwise, they chose to work on subsistence crops even thoigh this kept the family's total income below the potential maximum. This demonstrates that it is mistaken to assume the traditional "unitary household" -- but rather, that the bargaining model, reflecting who controls what, may be more appropriate. It also indicates the potential cost to productivity of denying women the fruits of their own labor (Jones 1986).

I.

2.09 Types of Women Farmers. Data are needed on wlhich women are fa-m managers in their own right, farm partners with their husbands, or laborers, because the extension information and resources needed vary for each type. Women in the farm partner/worker and farm manager categories should receive extension services based on their responsibilities in the farm enterprise. Extension should certainly reach female-headed households since this group is often over-represented among the poor and disadvantaged. Female agricultural wage laborers, who may be landless, have little decision-making power and need not be primary extension targets.