# **1. Gender differences in agricultural productivity**

Across Sub-Saharan Africa, a range of empirical studies have found that female farmers have lower yields than male farmers. A number of reports have documented this pattern and sought to explain it (SOFA, 2011, WDR 2012). Taken together, these studies suggest constraints in every step of the production process. First, women are likely to have less land to cultivate than men, and when they do, tenure security may be weaker. Second, their access to technology, information, and agricultural extension tends to be more limited compared to men. In growing crops, women are more prone to be constrained in their access to inputs, resulting in lower levels of fertilizer, labor, and other inputs than is optimal. Management of plots may reveal constraints as well – ranging from lower levels of education to trying to juggle dual roles as farm manager and household manager.

Although this is the general perception, the reality is more nuanced with some studies finding females to have lower average productivity than males while others find no significant differences between the two groups (see Croppenstedt et al., 2013). In many instances, back of the envelope calculations show that if you normalize inputs (taking into account access to land and productive inputs), the gender gap almost always disappears (WDR 2012). These findings indicate that women are not worse farmers, but just face certain constraints that limit their productivity. However, these types of calculations do not take into consideration that returns to productive inputs also matter. Men and women could have access to the same quantity of inputs, but with different returns.

Empirical issues complicate our understanding of the link between gender and agricultural productivity. A large proportion of the studies use the gender of the household head as the gender identifier while fewer studies have been able to examine the differences in productivity at the plot level. The latter approach allows researchers to match the characteristics of the individual in the household managing plot activities to the input use and productivity of the plot. Defaulting to the household head when plot level information is not available may mask some gender differences in productivity as it is possible for other members of the household to be responsible for the dayto-day decision making on the plot other than the household head. In a study of Ugandan households, Peterman et al. (2011) conducted a sensitivity analysis comparing plot level with household head level data and found that significant gender differences at the plot level disappear at the household head level. The authors speculate that this suggests gender differences in agricultural productivity may not be revealed at higher levels of aggregation that do not correspond to the basic decision making unit in specific farming systems. Kilic et al. (2013) is one of the few studies that have used nationally representative data to examine gender differences in agricultural productivity at the plot level. In their analysis on Malawi, they find that female managed plots are 25 percent less productive compared to male managed plots.

There is strong evidence to suggest that women have significantly less access to productive assets, such as land, credit, extension services, fertilizer, and agricultural machinery (WDR 2012). However, the evidence on the significance of this differential access in accounting for gender productivity gaps is mixed, and further research is needed to examine the extent to which the 2