Agribusiness investment: small farmers' strategies and women's role to cope with changes

What strategies households adopt to cope in an environment transformed by the development of a large-scale plantation or a contract farming scheme? and, especially, what role do women play to cope with the changes? This communication explores households¿ strategies facing the development of these two business models, for a same crop, by a single enterprise in two distinct areas. In the large-scale plantation area, results show that households who lose land prefer opting for diversification rather than seizing the opportunities offered by the company. In this respect, women actively contribute to the households¿ diversification strategy by running the livestock farming, doing handcraft, keeping the house and, punctually, selling their workforce in the neighborhood. On the opposite, the households who suffer no land loss mostly take the jobs offered by the company - especially the women who can associate these daily jobs with their on farm and household activities. In the contract farming area, large farmers as well as small farmers get involved in the contractual scheme to diminish the production risks by diversifying their crops, to optimize their means of production or to overcome financial constraint. In this respect, women are often the ones who trigger the introduction of the contract in the household economy and, in one third of the cases; they are the ones signing the contract. The study, still in its qualitative stage (about 80 interviews, one month of intensive fields work in teamwork), identifies the key questions that will be explored and evaluated in the forthcoming quantitative study.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Burnod, Perrine, Andriamanalina, Beby Seheno, Brès, Aurélie
Format:	conference_item biblioteca
Language:	eng
Published:	s.n.
Subjects:	E80 - Économie familiale et artisanale, E50 - Sociologie rurale, E14 - Économie et politique du développement,
Online Access:	http://agritrop.cirad.fr/574063/ http://agritrop.cirad.fr/574063/1/document_574063.pdf
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!