The Role of Women on Agriculture in China

Liqin Zhang

College of Economics & ManagementChina Agricultural University

liq-zh@263.net

Background

• China had 30 years rapid economic growth (GDP per capita grew at 8.5% per year)

• Agriculture lost comparative advantage with industry. In 2011, GDP from agriculture is only 10%.

• The world largest labor migration from rural to urban area. In 2012, there are about 266 million migrants.

• With the dramatic change, is there feminization of agriculture in China? What’s the role of them played on agriculture?

Data

• The data set used in this paper was collected by the survey department of the Rural Center for Rural Economy, a research unit affiliated with the China  Ministry of Agriculture. The survey unit has designed and administered one of the most comprehensive farm household surveys in China over the past 20 years.

• The samples of this paper include 8000 rural households and about 32000 individuals from 9 provinces in 2003-2009. The provinces include Shanxi, Liaoning, Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi, Guangdong, Sichuan, Yunnan and Shaanxi.

Measure feminization of farm labor

• Working days by gender in rural area

Women Men

Farm Non-farm Farm Non-farm

2003 95 95 85 1072004 96 96 85 1552005 93 97 84 1552006 87 99 77 1602007 80 107 72 1652008 77 101 70 1622009 76 105 68 165

Especially after 2007, rural women’s agricultural working days decrease significantly as men, but are still higher than men’s.

Measure feminization of farm labor • Working days by gender and age in rural area

Farm Non-farm2003 2006 2009 2003 2006 2009

Women 16-25 36.48 30.57 33.17 171.50 173.72 163.17 25-35 80.16 64.64 50.21 126.77 141.93 163.09 35-40 122.47 113.86 98.18 93.47 104.46 122.73 45-55 125.96 113.83 99.83 57.11 65.93 81.24 55-65 72.02 72.70 63.39 25.46 25.68 29.89Men 16-25 39.82 28.53 27.18 183.33 194.49 198.35 25-35 55.80 46.34 39.03 198.37 210.28 219.33 35-40 95.49 84.92 69.15 166.11 181.18 194.63 45-55 118.84 102.94 92.19 123.05 140.12 151.36 55-65 99.88 94.95 83.68 65.07 70.17 75.81

Young women has migrated from agriculture to non-agriculture. But women of prime working ages (25-55 years old) participated in farming at higher rates than men.

Measure feminization of farm labor • Result:

– Feminization is occurring in China, but slightly

– Rural women are largely migrating from farm to non-farm as men.

Measure Feminization of farm management

• We define female-managed farms or female-headed households as households in which either (1) the household named a female as the head, or (2) the male head migrated and was away from the household for 6 months or more.

• There are three situations for household with a female head : (1) China is a patriarchal society, usually a woman became a head after her husband died; (2) the husband’s hukou is urban; (3) uxorilocal marriage. The latter two situation are few.

• Left-Ratio of left-behind women is slightly increased from 2003 to 2009. Kids care and eldly care is main reason o left-behind.

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

Ratio of hhds named a female as head 7.1% 6.7% 6.2% 6.5% 6.8% 7.0% 7.4%

Ratio of hhds with the male head migrated (or called left-behind women)

6.5% 6.5% 7.0% 6.9% 7.4% 7.4% 7.0%

Total 13.6% 13.2% 13.3% 13.4% 14.1% 14.3% 14.4%

Access to economic resources• Land

– Average size of farms is slightly increasing. Main reason is that renting farmland is more often than before since some rural labor migrated from agriculture to non-agriculture and from rural area to city. The ratio of rented farmland is about 10% in 2003, but 21.2% in 2012 (China Ministry of Agriculture, 2012).

– Female-managed farms still have less access to land than male-managed farms.

Female-headed Male-headed2003 2006 2009 2003 2006 2009

Arable land(mu) 5.30 4.81 5.77 6.24 6.55 6.81 -per capita 1.68 1.32 2.57 1.83 1.78 2.01Orchard (mu) 2.58 2.63 2.84 2.99 3.60 3.70 - per capita 0.89 0.71 0.89 0.86 0.93 1.03Forest (mu) 11.03 13.48 14.01 24.54 26.84 21.40 - per capita 3.52 3.54 3.77 7.44 7.64 6.42Note: The farms without land is excluded.

Access to economic resource

Female-headed Male-headed

Total loan 3325.77 4384.20 (1)Loan from bank (yuan) 1514.39 2240.88

(2)Loan from person (yuan) 974.74 1089.00 (3)Other source (yuan) 836.64 1054.31 Loan used for agriculture production (yuan)

541.31 1009.17

• Credit

– Less credit access for women. Average credit of female-managed households is about 75% of male-managed households in 2007-2009.

– Loan used for agricultural production of female-managed households is also lower.

Note: The data reported is average of 2007-2009.

Access to economic resource

• Market

– Limited access, self consumption.

– Female-managed farms have lower commercial rate of food crops (including wheat, rice and corn), 33% in 2009. The rate for male-managed farms is 54%.

Agricultural production

• Crop categorized

– Food crops: including wheat, rice, corn, soybean and tubers (conversion factor for grain is 5:1) , which matter food security for family and the state.

– Cash crops and livestock: main cash sources for small farm in China. Stable cash income is important means to improve small farmer’s well-being in developing country.

2007 2008 2009Female-headed hhds

Male-headed hhds

Female-headed hhds

Male-headed hhds

Female-headed hhds

Male-headed hhds

Sown area (mu) 4.2 5.8 3.7 5.7 4.0 6.0 Production (kg) 1619.2 3627.3 1334.2 2268.5 1260.6 2265.7 Yield (kg/mu) 510.9 641.0 391.1 426.1 385.7 419.1 Revenue (yuan/mu) 650.2 651.0 678.5 714.2 705.2 731.5 Ferterlizer per mu (yuan/mu) 87.6 84.0 98.8 102.9 102.2 99.6 Pesticide per mu (yuan/mu) 17.4 19.3 17.9 20.9 18.2 21.3 Irrigation per mu (yuan/mu) 14.3 11.3 11.8 11.1 11.9 11.4 Machinery per mu (yuan/mu) 25.9 29.1 28.5 34.6 35.2 39.3

Female-managed farms in food crops had(1)less sown area(2)less food crop productivity(3)but no significant input difference from male-managed farm in food crops

Agricultural production• Production of food crop (by gender)

Female-managed farms in cash crops had(1)less productivity(2)less revenue(3)significant difference of most input (including fertilizer, pesticide and purchased machinery service) from male-managed farm

Agricultural production • Production of cash crop (by gender)

2007 2008 2009Female-headed hhds

Male-headed hhds

Female-headed hhds

Male-headed hhds

Female-headed hhds

Male-headed hhds

Sown area (mu) 0.9 2.2 0.8 1.2 5.3 4.0

Yield (kg/mu) 1233.4 1455.9 1316.8 1457.3 1159.5 1363.9

Revenue (yuan/mu) 1340.2 1789.5 1564.4 1909.4 1678.1 1953.3

Fertilizer (yuan/mu) 79.5 90.1 101.1 110.2 93.6 106.4 Pesticide (yuan/mu) 28.7 30.5 31.5 34.7 32.1 36.4 Irrigation (yuan/mu) 7.8 5.4 6.8 8.1 13.1 7.1 Purchased machinery service (yuan/mu) 4.8 6.1 5.0 7.4 9.0 10.6

Female-managed farms in livestock had(1)small size(2)less productivity(3)less revenue(4)lower input

Agricultural production • Production of livestock (by gender)

Pork Poultry

Female-headed Male-headed Female-headed Male-headed

No. of animal for sale 7.1 11.2 19.7 140.2Production (kg) 287.5 1021.7 40.4 185.6Revenue (yuan) 3765.2 8120.3 577.1 2249.4Operation Cost (yuan) 2286.4 5099.9 301.8 1698.8Net Revenue (yuan) 1478.8 3020.4 275.3 550.7

Preliminary conclusion and policy implication

Preliminary conclusion:

• Feminization of agricultural is occurring in China, but women are migrating as men, so the feminization tendency should be attenuated.

• Women have lower access to economic resource, including land, credit and market.

• Female-managed farms have lower agriculture productivity.

– Lower productivity in food crops will decrease the probability of food security. Guaranteeing food security is one of important strategy of China.

– Women have no advantage in cash crop and livestock, which isn’t helpful to improve the wellbeing of left-behind women.

Preliminary conclusion and policy implication

Policy implication

•For changing the status quo of women as marginal group and improve their well-being, the government should have gender perspective and support rural women to migrate to city and high paid non-farm job, to make sure them also benefited from the economic growth.

•For improving agricultural productivity of left-behind women, the policy should strengthen the training, extension and women-friendly technology.