Intra-household gender division of labour and decision-making on rice postharvest handling practices: A case of Eastern Uganda

Figures & data

Table 1. Socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents

Variable	Categories	Sample statistics (n = 150)
Age (years)	Mean	42.9
Gender (%)	Male	60.7
	Female	39.3
Highest level of education (%)	No schooling	11.3
	Primary	58.0
	Secondary	30.0
	Tertiary	0.7
Marital status (%)	Married	89.3
	Others	10.7
House hold type (%)	Male headed	90
	Female headed	10
Household size (number)	Mean	8.8
Total land cultivated (acres)	Mean	4.2
Total land allocated to rice (acres)	Mean	1.5
Average paddy rice production (kg) per acre	Mean	943
Experience in rice production (years)	Mean	16.5
Proportion of rice for sale	Mean	70.5
Access to credit for rice production and PHH (%)		56.0
Access to extension services on rice PHH (%)		38
Membership to farmer groups engaged in rice Post-harvest activities (%)		37.3

Table 2. Labour requirements for the different rice postharvest handling processes

Stages in rice postharvest processes	Percentage of respondents ranking labour intensity (1 = Most labour intensive to 6 = Least labour intensive)						Overall rank	Average proportion of work done by family & hired labour
								Family labour	Hired labour
	1	2	3	4	5	6
Harvesting	89.3	5.3	4.7	0.7	0	0	1	45.67	54.50
Heaping	0.7	30.0	46.7	11.3	10.0	1.3	3	63.80	36.02
Threshing	9.3	52.0	30	6	2.0	0.7	2	54.91	44.63
Drying	0.7	8.0	11.3	48	29.3	2.7	4	92.20	7.80
Winnowing	0	3.3	6.7	32.7	52	5.3	5	91.57	8.53
Storage	0	1.3	1.3	2.0	6.7	88.6	6	94.27	5.73

Table 3. Intra-household division of labour in rice post-harvest activities

Process	Specific tasks	Average proportion of work done				Comparison of means of work done by gender
		Men	Women	Boys	Girls	Men against women	Boys against Girls
		Mean	Mean	Mean	Mean	t-static	t-static
Harvesting	Cutting & bundling	69.99	16.03	9.07	4.91	12.51***	2.05**
	Cooking food for laborers	4.66	77.45	1.84	16.05	−17.20***	−4.84***
	Overall supervision	69.50	28.53	1.00	0.97	6.18***	0.05
Heaping	Carrying rice to the heap	35.49	35.67	16.72	12.11	−0.04	2.33**
	Spreading tarpaulin	51.56	33.93	9.32	5.19	2.88***	2.32**
Threshing	Beating	59.63	24.11	9.98	6.28	7.51***	2.18**
	Feeding rice into thresher	56.11	14.44	23.89	5.56	1.750	1.160
	Transporting rice home	75.88	9.83	8.51	5.78	16.31***	1.35
Drying	Spreading rice in the sun	43.70	44.80	5.93	5.57	−0.18	0.26
	Constant turning and scare crowing	18.60	40.44	22.61	18.36	−3.99***	1.71*
	Checking rice for dryness	65.57	33.62	0.57	0.23	4.64***	1.00
Winnowing	Actual winnowing	46.64	44.80	5.91	2.65	0.32	2.31**
Storage	Bagging	63.58	25.28	7.17	3.97	7.16***	1.87*
	Stacking	65.00	27.11	4.96	2.93	6.45***	1.29

^* Significant level at 10%.

^** Significant level at 5%.

^*** Significant level at 1%.

Figure 1. Contribution by men and women to decisions in postharvest practices.