Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture in the Semi-Arid: A Case Study of Northeastern Brazil

ABSTRACT

Gender inequality affects agricultural production and rural households’ capacity to build climate resilience, especially in developing countries. However, empirical research on promoting women’s empowerment in the face of environmental threats is limited, particularly in areas vulnerable to the impact of climate change, such as semi-arid regions. This study identifies factors promoting women’s empowerment in semi-arid regions and the mechanisms behind them. This mixed-methods case study was conducted in a semi-arid area in Northeastern Brazil, utilizing household surveys, key informant interviews, and focus groups. Results show that accessing targeted credit lines and extension services was significantly associated with empowerment. The qualitative findings suggest that adopting participatory mechanisms in policymaking and utilizing feminist pedagogy and popular education in the intervention delivery process was crucial to achieving women’s empowerment in the study area.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Climate change increases risks for rural livelihoods, highlighting the need for resilience.

• Women’s empowerment is key to bolstering agriculture’s resilience in semi-arid regions, such as northeastern Brazil.

• Participatory approaches in policy design are crucial for women's empowerment success.

• Inclusion of feminist pedagogy in interventions enhances rural women’s empowerment.

KEYWORDS:

• Women
• empowerment
• semi-arid
• Brazil
• agriculture
• WEAI index

JEL Codes:

• J16
• Q01
• Q18

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This research was supported by the CAPES/CNPq under the Science without Borders Programme (BEX1190513). In addition, we thank the Newcastle University Researcher Centre for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS) for mobility support in the fieldwork. We would like to thank Dr. Conceição Dantas (The Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte) and Ms. Ivonilda de Souza (leader of the farmers’ association juntas venceremos) for their support during the conduction of this study. We also thank the Centro Feminista 8 de Março (CF8), Sindicato dos Trabalhadores e Trabalhadoras Rurais de Apodi (STRRA), and all smallholder farmers of Chapada do Apodi for their collaboration. We are also grateful to Dr. Chris Tapscott for his helpful comments and suggestions. We would like to extend our sincere gratitude to the anonymous reviewers for their valuable insights and comments, which greatly improved the quality of this manuscript.

Notes

1 Later, we elucidate our interpretation of empowerment within the context of this study.

2 According to the federal law n° 11.326, July 24, 2006, a family farmer is engaged in farming activities and meets the following criteria: (1) Hold an area of up to 4 (four) fiscal modules, (2) use only family labor, and (3) percentage of the income comes from agriculture activities.

3 This methodology was developed by researchers at USAID, IFPRI, and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) to monitor changes in women’s empowerment status in regions served by Feed the Future, the US government’s global hunger and food security initiative (Alkire et al. 2013).

4 Major assets are defined as agricultural land, large animals and livestock, mechanized farm and non-farm equipment, a house, large consumer durables, a cell phone, non-agricultural land, and means of transportation (Alkire et al. 2013). In the original version, the individual is considered inadequate if it the household does not own any major assets OR the household owns this type of asset, BUT the individual does not have sole or joint ownership of the asset.

5 Caatinga is a typical vegetation in northeast Brazil, characterized by steppical savanna.

6 These data were provided by the Rural Workers Union of Apodi (Sindicato dos Trabalhadores e Trabalhadoras Rurais de Apodi, or STTRA).

7 More detail on the selection of the communities selected is provided below.

8 To map the region, we gathered information from several institutions, such as the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA), the Secretary of Agriculture of Apodi, and the Rural Workers Union of Apodi (STTRA).

9 To estimate the multivariate probit, we used the statistical software Stata 13 – command mvprobit, which estimates M-equation probit models by simulated maximum likelihood (SML). The variance-covariance matrix of the cross-equation error terms presents correlations on the off diagonal and 1 on the main diagonal. To access the M-dimensional normal integrals in the likelihood function mvprobit, one can use the Geweke-Hajivassiliou-Keane (GHK) simulator

10 We also tried a four-equation system of equations, using the variable gr (whether the woman participates in a women farmers’ association) as an independent variable; we dropped this fourth equation because we could not find endogeneity using using an adapted Hausman test (Knapp and Seaks 1998).

11 There are differences between the WEAI indicator “access to credit” and the explanatory variable “access to the targeted credit line.” The former addresses the following points: (1) whether anyone in the household had restrictions to access to credit; (2) whether anyone in the household had accessed credit in the last year; (3) who decides to borrow; and (4) who decides what to do with the loan. In contrast, the study’s explanatory variable indicates whether women in the household were the direct beneficiary (which means that they were the ones who had received the credit) of rural development–targeted credit lines. The question to assess this information was, “Have you been a beneficiary of a credit line targeted to agricultural production/rural development in the last twelve months as part of rural development programs?”

12 In this study, we used a definition of agroecology and its practices provided by FAO. Agroecology is an integrated strategy that simultaneously applies ecological and social concepts and principles to the design and management of food and agricultural systems. It aims to optimize the interactions between plants, animals, humans, and the environment, considering the social factors that must be addressed for a sustainable and equitable food system.

13 As pointed out earlier, the group membership module of the WEAI methodology was adapted to collect information on participation in mixed farmers’ organizations for men and women.

14 Using the original inadequacy cutoffs, the overall A-WEAI score goes up to 0.89, with 70.2 percent of women considered empowered, and 71.1 percent with gender parity in their households. This study uses the WEAI classification provided by a baseline report that estimates scores from 13 countries, categorizing the scores as high (> 0.85), medium (0.85 to 0.75), or low (< 0.75; Malapit et al. 2014). As a reference, Malapit et al. (2014) reports that Bangladesh and Cambodia were placed at the two extremes of the ranking, the former with a score of 0.66 and the latter with a score of 0.98.

15 The standard errors of the estimated marginal effects refer to bootstrapped standard errors.

16 Pal and Gupta's study aimed to determine how credit access affected social, psychological, and economic facets of women’s empowerment in rural India. According to this study, there is a statistically significant association between having access to credit and all dimensions of women's empowerment.

17 Some of the mechanisms for participatory policymaking were created before the Workers’ party administration (Rodríguez Gustá, Madera, and Caminotti 2017).

18 The CF8 was founded in 1993 in Mossoró, Rio Grande do Norte. The founders were women from local unions, activists, and students from the women’s health movement, and its initial focus was on preventing violence against women and women’s health (Masson and Beaulieu Bastien 2021).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento Pessoal de Nível Superior [Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education] and Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico [National Council for Scientific and Technological Development] [Grant Number BEX1190513].

Notes on contributors

Erika Valerio

Erika Valerio is Research Fellow at the School of Environmental and Rural Science at the University of New England. Erika is a rural development researcher whose expertise spans the diverse sectors of agriculture, gender, innovation, and value chain development on focused projects. She has substantial experience using mixed methods approaches for policy and program evaluation. She also has several years of experience conducting research in different countries across Southern Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America working for different multilateral agencies. Erika holds a PhD in rural development from Newcastle University.

Luca Panzone

Luca Panzone is a food economist who holds a senior lectureship in consumer behavior at Newcastle University and is a fellow of the Alan Turing Institute, specializing in food economics and marketing. His research interests focus on the analysis of social problems related to agriculture, food, and the environment. Methodologically, he derives insights from quantitative methods, including the analysis of very large datasets, and from experiments in the lab and field.

Emma Siliprandi

Emma Siliprandi holds a PhD in sustainable development (Universidade de Brasilia, Brasil/Universidad de Valladolid, Spain) and a Master’s in sociology. She has been a FAO agricultural officer since 2013 and the lead focal point for the Scaling-Up Agroecology Initiative for the last four years. Emma is a researcher and visiting professor of PhD and master’s courses in agroecology in Spain and Brazil, among other countries.