Asrat Gella

• Renewable energy
• Human Rights
• Agriculture, land use, climate change

• Ethiopia

MPhil Gender and Development, University of Bergen, Norway, 2013.

PG Diploma International Development, University of Bath, UK, 2006.

BA Sociology, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia, 2001.

Gender, Gender (in)Equality and Small Scale Family Farming in Ethiopia: Discourses and Practices

The existence of a gender gap in agriculture has been the subject of a lot of attention in the past two decades. The frequently encountered argument in much of the existing literature on the subject is that women make up a substantial portion of the farming population in all developing countries and make essential contributions to agriculture and rural economic activities; they however have less access to the productive resources and services required by farmers and they are less likely than men to own land or livestock, adopt new technologies, use credit or other financial services, or receive education or extension advice; which in turn negatively impacts the productivity of women farmers and agricultural productivity as a whole. Hence, the argument goes, it is important to close this gender gap not only to realize the equal access rights of women as citizens but also to realize their full potential as farmers and increase agricultural productivity as a whole. Despite such arguments being made numerous times, however, the gender gap continues to persist perhaps in part due to the lack of studies that unravel the way this gender gap is perpetuated and reproduced. How gender enters in to play in the everyday lives of farmers, the embodied nature of agricultural activities, the positioning of men and women in relation to farming activities and implements, understandings of gender itself and gender equality, and how all these relate to, shape, and affect policy and gender equality interventions have thus far attracted little attention. This study aims to address these shortcomings and is an important contribution to the knowledge gap that exists in the current discussion of the gender gap in agriculture. The main purpose of this study is understanding the ways gender inequality and equality are represented in the policy and social discourses in Ethiopia as they relate to family farming

BMZ via DAAD

Prof. Dr. Eva Youkhana

Dr. Till Stellmacher