Engendering Agricultural Censuses: The case of Malawi

1
Engendering Agricultural Censuses The case of
Malawi

• By Gunvor Iversen Moyo
• Statistics Norway
• Presented at the Global Forum on Gender
  Statistics, Accra Ghana, 26-28 January 2009

2
What does engendering (agricultural) Statistics
mean?

• - It should be possible to disaggregate all
  statistical data by sex whenever possible
• - Information pertaining to gender issues should
  be included in all data collection
• - The above should become an integrated part of
  the general statistical system

3
What happened in Malawi to facilitate engendering
the Agricultural census (NACAL)?

• - The management of the NSO was fully aware of
  the importance of including gender issues in the
  NACAL
• - The funding body, The Norwegian Government,
  also had the same awareness
• - The users discussed the various priority
  areas in a stakeholder conference, and the
  areas, including gender, was accepted as a basis
  for the NACAL data collection
• - Hence, collecting information that could be
  disaggregated by sex on relevant gender issues,
  became one of the priority areas of the NACAL

4
The importance of agriculture in Malawi

• Agriculture is the mainstay of the economy in
  Malawi and the population is highly dependent on
  agriculture.
• About 90 percent of the population live in rural
  areas, and almost every household is engaged in
  small holder agriculture
• Even in urban areas, more than half of the
  households are engaged in agriculture.
• A larger proportion of employed women are engaged
  in agriculture ( 84 percent) than employed men
  (71 percent)
• About 30 percent of agricultural households are
  female headed
• Agricultural output generates over 90 of export
  earnings, and 30-40 of GDP, most of which is
  produced by smallholders
• The Government has given high priority to the
  development of the smallholder agricultural sub
  sector
• Agricultural smallholders were also the main
  focus of NACAL.

5
About the NACAL

• Data collection covered the 2006/07 agricultural
  season, enumerators were in the field for 10
  months
• The sample was about 25 000 households, including
  both rural and urban areas, giving reliable
  estimates for district level as well as for
  regions and the whole country

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How did we engender NACAL?

• Data collection
• Holding was defined as all land pertaining to a
  household
• Information was collected on household level and
  on all parcels and plots owned by the household
• Information was also collected on all household
  members, such as sex, age, relationship to
  household head

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How did we engender NACAL? cont

• Information used to disaggregate the information
  by sex
• Household Characteristics of all hh members,
  like sex, age, relationship to head, used to
  analyse data on household level
• Operator From the household characteristics
  Sex, age, rel. To head used to analyse data on
  parcel and plot level

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How did we engender NACAL? cont

• Gender issues were covered through 8 modules
  covering the smallholder sector
• Module 1. Household composition,
• Module 2. Parcel details
• Module 3. Plot details
• Module 4. Food security and HIV/AIDS
• Module 5. Marketing,
• Module 6.Welfare Monitoring survey
• Module 7.Livestock survey
• Module 8.Village facilities

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How did we engender NACAL? cont

• Through a common identification system, all those
  modules can be merged
• data on sex of household head or sex of operator
  for parcels and plots can be linked to all the
  information provided on those levels.
• The various modules can be linked, such that e.g
  poverty information for households can be used as
  a background variable for analysis for all
  relevant issues
• Information on village facilities, such as access
  to markets can be linked to each household living
  in that village

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Reports

• So far 5 thematic reports have been produced
• Production and structure of smallholder
  agriculture in Malawi
• Food security and HIV/AIDS
• Livestock report
• Villages in Malawi
• The Gender Dimension of Agriculture
•  Except for the village report, all tables are
  disaggregated by sex

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Content of the Gender report

• 1. Introduction
• 1.1. Sample, data collection and data processing
• 1,2 Main definitions
• 2. The Gender Dimension, Female Headed versus
  Male Headed Households
• 3. Ownership of land and livestock
• 4. Crop production
• 4.1. Agricultural practices
• 4.2. Inputs
• 4.3. Labour division
• 5. 4. Food security and Hiv/Aids

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Further work

• Stakeholder conference to discuss further
  analysis of NACAL, including a training session
  on data analysis
• Comprehensive analyses of gender issues will be
  proposed, linking information from all relevant
  modules together,
• - e.g link land size, inputs, agricultural
  practices, production and livestock keeping to
  food security
• A small study fund will be set up to encourage
  further analysis of data on projects with a more
  limited scope

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What about engendering agricultural statistics?

• All information collected was disaggregated by
  sex, where possible
• Most relevant gender issues in agriculture were
  covered
• Integration in the statistical system
• - WMS is already an annual survey
• -Employment, poverty and Food security are
  already modules in the annual WMS
• - A system of Annual Agricultural Surveys will be
  designed using NACAL as a baseline, securing that
  sex disaggregated data on agricultural production
  will become an integral part of the data
  collection activities of NSO