UN Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs,
with support from the UN Population Fund (UNFPA)
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| UN Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, with support from the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) |
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This document is being made available by the Population Information
Network (POPIN) Gopher of the U.N. Population Division, Dept. for
Economic and Social Information and Policy Analysis in
collaboration with the Population Programme Service, Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. For further
information please contact jacques.duguerny@fao.org
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From: Modules on Gender, Population & Rural Development with a
Focus on Land Tenure & Farming Systems. Rome: FAO, Population
Programme Service, November 1995.
MODULE IV: GENDER, MIGRATION, FARMING SYSTEMS & LAND TENURE
(Topouzis/du Guerny, SDWP, November 1995)
What have Gender and Migration to do with Farming Systems and Land
Tenure?
Migration is radically changing the socio-economic,
demographic and development profile of developing countries, with
far-reaching implications for agriculture-based economies.
According to United Nations estimates, 50% of the projected
increase in the world's urban population will come from rural-to-
urban migration so that by 2025, over 1.1 billion of urban people
in Less Developed Regions will be rural migrants.a/ Clearly, the
socio-economic and demographic ramifications of this massive rural
exodus will have a marked impact not only on urban but on rural
areas alike. Rural-to-rural migration, which accounts for a large
percentage of population movement and is primarily effected through
marriage, similarly has important implications for agricultural and
rural development.
It is the impact of migration on rural areas, and particularly
on farming systems and land tenure, that are the focus of this
module. The first part of the module analyzes the linkages between
gender, rural-to-urban migration and farming systems, while the
second part identifies some linkages between gender, migration and
land tenure using the Onchocerciasis Control Programme (OCP) in
West Africa as a case study. Key questions to be addressed include
the following: What is the gender differential impact of rural-to-
urban migration on farming systems and the farm household? What
are the implications of the changing composition and size of the
rural labour force for farming systems? How does migration
interface with gender and land tenure? Why is it important to
consider demographic and gender variables in development projects
such as the Onchocerciasis Control Programme?
The objective of this module is to stimulate discussion among
farming systems, gender and population specialists on the
implications of the interface between migration, gender, farming
systems and land tenure for population, agricultural and rural
development programmes in order to identify key policy issues and
related research needs.
A. Gender, Rural-to-Urban Migration & Farming Systems
Rural-to-Urban Migration: A Gender Perspective
Rural-to-urban migration is a mechanism of individual and
group adjustments to development gaps created between the dynamic
and inviting industrial sector in urban and peri-urban areas and
the often more inert and less attractive agricultural sector in
rural areas.1/ Such adjustments usually trigger both positive and
negative effects. On the positive side, migration helps to reduce
pressure on agricultural land and food supplies, provides
opportunities for the rural unemployed and underemployed, and is
associated with rising living standards and livelihood prospects at
the household and community levels in urban as well as rural areas.
On the negative side, new imbalances in both origin and destination
areas are created. In most of urban Asia, Africa and Latin
America, this is manifested in high unemployment and growing social
unrest, while in rural areas it translates into declining
agricultural output (at least for subsistence crops), growing
pauperization (particularly among women), and a disruption of
traditional family and social structures.2/
For many development specialists and policy-makers, migration
invariably tends to conjure the image of men moving to urban
centers in search of employment. Surprisingly, even though rural
exodus is known to be triggered by land degradation, extant
literature tends to focus on the area of destination, viewing
migration as a process of urbanization, rather than from the point
of origin and destination. These stereotypes have concealed both
the gender dimensions of migration as well as the rural-urban
continuum b/ which can have significant repercussions on farming
systems, land tenure, agricultural production, food security and
sustainability.
While male rural-to-urban migration has received considerable
attention and has been the subject of extensive research, the
gender (and population) dimensions of migration, particularly from
the point of view of area of origin, have been largely neglected.
These dimensions include: i) migration-induced changes in gender
relations within the farm household and their demographic effects,
including the demographic behaviour of female-headed farm
households; ii) female rural-to-urban migration; c/ and iii)
migration-induced changes in land tenure and their demographic
implications.d/
Table 1. Migrants to India's Urban Areas by
Sex, 1961-1981
---------------------------------------------------
Number of Migrants
Year Male Female
% %
---------------------------------------------------
1961-71 11,239,719 9,741,371
53.57% 46.5%
--------------------------------------------------
1971-81 14,430,086 14,279,720
50.26% 49.74%
--------------------------------------------------
Source: Census of India, 1971 and 1981, in
P. Pathak, "Urbanization, Female Migration and
Employment in India," Issues in the Study of
Rural-Urban Migration: Report and Papers of the
Expert Group Meeting on Trends, Patterns and
Implications of Rural-Urban Migration, Bangkok,
November 1992, United Nations, New York, 1994,
p. 62.
As a result of this neglect, the gender dimensions of
migration have yet to be incorporated in the development agenda.
The 1994 International Conference on Population and Development
only refers to gender as "an interesting aspect of internal
migration."e/ There is no analysis of the gender implications of
female migration on farm households, on family demographic
strategies, and on agricultural production and food security, and
no mention of the impact of migration on the rural women left
behind.
The neglect of the gender dimensions of migration is also
reflected in data collection and analysis: statistical information
on rural-to-urban migration by gender is often not available and
data on female-headed farm households is limited. Information on
female-headed farm households has focused on the heads of household
per se rather than on the female-headed farm household unit.3/ As a
result of such lacunae, decision-makers are not aware of related
policy implications, and agricultural as well urbanization
programmes do not often take into account gender as an integral
variable of migration.
"Push/Pull" Factors and Gender Selectivity
Urban "pull" factors (conditions encouraging people to move to
the cities) for men tend to be similar worldwide, and include
prospects of earning higher wages, a perceived demand for labour
and better social services. "Push" factors (conditions encouraging
people to leave the land) vary considerably among regions and
countries, as well as among social groups, and between men and
women. Rural unemployment resulting from rapid population growth
and the mechanization of agricultural processes has been identified
as the leading cause of rural-to-urban migration, especially in
Latin America.4/ Another major "push" factor out of rural areas is
the growing shortage of fertile arable land in the context of high
population growth, landholding inequality, environmental
degradation, rural poverty, and the lack of infrastructure and
social services in rural areas. Adverse environmental conditions,
unfavourable macro-economic policies and declining markets for
certain types of produce are also important "push" factors for male
out-migration in Africa.5/
In the case of male rural-to-urban migration, young men seek
employment in the cities, leaving behind female relatives to manage
on their own and to provide for both the elderly and the young.
This results not only in changes in family structure, but usually
leads to adjustments in family roles, and more importantly, in the
division of labour as well as in the way labour is utilised in the
community of origin and destination.6/ In the long term, it also
leads to an aging of the labour force. As a result of these
adjustments, women often assume major responsibilities for, and in
some countries become the backbone of, subsistence food production
(a phenomenon which has been termed the `feminization of
agriculture') and in the management of their families' livelihoods.
In the case of female rural-to-urban migration, "pull" factors
are often reduced to a false distinction between associational
(non-economic, such as wanting to join the family) and economic
motives. Associational "pull" factors have to some extent hidden
an often very different reality. In Latin America, rural women
out-migrate due to lack of access to land and the mechanization of
agricultural production, and move to the cities in search of
employment in textiles, food processing and other labour-intensive
industries, as well as in the informal sector.7/ In French-speaking
Africa, a recent United Nations study found that more than half of
migrant women interviewed reported economic resons, and
particularly employment, as the main reason behind their decision
to migrate. Family reasons came a far second (35%).8/ In Thailand,
one survey found that 74% of single female migrants reported moving
for economic reasons, while 52% of married female migrants had
migrated for economic reasons and 26% for family reasons.9/
Migration can be particularly significant for women as it usually
entails a marked change in status -- from unpaid family farm
workers to employees or to self-employment in urban areas.10/ To
date, however, there is no consensus about whether migration
improves or erodes women's position vis-…-vis men, as a result of
the diverse factors that condition and mediate the effects of
migration on women's position and the diversity of women's
cirumstances across developing countries.11/
Linkages Between Gender, Rural-to-Urban Migration & Farming Systems
Rural-to-urban migration is an imporant factor influencing the
evolution of farming systems, along with changes in the rate of
capital formation in the agricultural sector and the relative
decline in agricultural prices.12/ One study on the impact of heavy
male circular migration f/ from rural areas in Indonesia found that in
eastern Kalimantan, women's involvement in rice and vegetable
production increased as a direct result of male out-migration.13/
The impact of rural-to-urban migration on a farm household, and
more specifically, on a farming system, mainly depends on three
factors: a) the gender and age of the migrant (whether it is a
parent or offspring/man or woman that is migrating); b) the type of
migration movement (whether it is temporary or permanent); and c)
the employment conditions and self-sufficiency of migrants. In
addition, the impact of migration varies between and within
countries, depending on the particular socio-economic circumstances
of the migrants, the agro-ecological environment, prevailing socio-
cultural conditions and a wide range of other factors.
FIGURE 2: Working Conceptual Model on the Linkages Between Labour,
Farming Systems and Demographic Characteristics & Strategies
FARMING SYSTEM
Activities Resources
crop & livestock enterprises land
off-farm activities labour
household activities capital
management
HOUSEHOLD LABOUR PROFILE FAMILY DEMOGRAPHIC
CHARACTERISTICS & STRATEGIES
Elderly Men Elderly Women
management childcare Fertility
decision cooking Mortality
making ...etc... Migration
Men Women
land clearing weeding
planting harvesting
harvesting food processing
...etc... ...etc...
Boys Girls
herding water fetching
threshing fuel collection
hoeing childcare
...etc... ...etc...
Rural-to-urban migration impacts on gender roles and relations in
the farm household through adjustments in three productive
resources: labour, capital and land. Rural-to-urban labour
migration may be beneficial to the farm household through migrants'
remittances which may be used to invest in the land, to acquire
more land or to hire labour. However, besides reducing the
available labour supply on the farm, migration may also have a
negative effect on food production and security. In fact, it has
recently been argued that the effects of rural-to-urban migration
on food production may be amplified as a result of the way family
labour is divided by gender and age.14/
i) Farm Labour Shortages
Long-term male rural-to-urban migration may fundamentally change
the gender division of labour in a farm household. Men may not be
available for ploughing and planting which are both time- and
energy-intensive. For women, this translates into a marked
increase in agricultural work,15/ including a wider range of farm
tasks, a heavier workload and less time for domestic tasks and
childcare. For instance, in Myanmar, migration has been cited a
one of the reasons why women have taken up ploughing and water
collection by bullock-cart.16/
With a diminishing supply of labour for male and shared farm
tasks, women must either depend on hired labour (which many cannot
afford) or resort to limiting agricultural operations. For
example, if women have problems hiring and/or supervising labour,
then ploughing may be undertaken less frequently, or on less land.17/
Thus, labour shortages may lead to a reduction in total
agricultural output and underutilized or idle productive land.
This may, in turn, result in changes in cropping patterns with
direct repercussions on dietary standards, family nutrition and
welfare. It may also undermine food security and contribute to the
adoption of unsustainable agricultural practices and to land
degradation.
Furthermore, out-migration of men and working-age youths -- which
is especially common in Latin America -- can have negative effects
on rural households by transferring workloads from adults to the
elderly and by increasing the labour burden of girl children, which
may have important repercussions on their fertility behaviour.
Older daughters, who are usually responsible for caring for younger
siblings and for helping with domestic chores, may have to take
part in a variety of economically productive activities on the
family farm instead. However, once younger sisters take over some
of these tasks, older daughters are expected to marry or are
encouraged to seek wage labour in cities.18/
Women's greater involvement in agricultural production and
increased responsibility in managing households, may or may not
modify their socio-economic status. In Latin America and parts of
Africa (i.e. Eritrea), some women have gained greater power in
making decisions about agricultural activities, in controling and
handling farm earnings, and in investing remittances, but have
tended to revert to their subordinate role upon the man's return.19/
Usually, the reason why women's position does not improve in the
long-term is because they are denied formal rights to land, have no
security of tenure and no access to other productive resources. In
sub-Saharan Africa, while day-to-day management of the farm is
undertaken by women, decisions affecting long-term investments
continue to be made by migrant men, and usually only upon their
return.20/
In Asia, it has been argued that rural- to-urban migration has
benefitted neither urban nor rural areas, and has created serious
problems both at the point of origin as well as at the point of
destination. Studies for several Asian countries have conclusively
shown that it is primarily the young, able-bodied and better
educated rural inhabitants who emigrate, leaving substantial gaps
in the agricultural and rural labour force.g/ As farming is
essentially a family enterprise in most Asian countries, the out-
migration of able-bodied young workers leaves the burden on older
and younger persons in rural areas who tend to be less productive.21/
The long-term implications of agricultural labour force shortages
are likely to result in a decline in food production and in the
health status of rural families (including a rise in mortality).
Similarly, in the case of sub-Saharan Africa, where land is not
generally scarce, any reduction in the labour force is likely to
decrease overall production of subsistence crops, even with a very
low marginal productivity, unless it is compensated by
technological means.22/ It has, in fact, been argued that rural-to-
urban migration is one of the main factors contributing to the
reduction (in terms of relative value) of the time devoted to
subsistence farming,23/ thereby leading to national food deficits and
rising food prices in many African countries.24/
The decline in food production in sub-Saharan Africa has been
associated not with the first wave of migration which involved men
(and which reinforced women's specialization in subsistence
farming), but with the second wave of migration which involved
women. The fact that women farmers are not paid for subsistence
farming could contribute to a crisis in the subsistence sector,
prompting women to out-migrate.h/ Strong socio-economic ties within
the extended family can exert two opposing influences, which,
combined, can undermine food security. On the one hand, the
dissociation of child-bearing from the cost of child-rearing
resulting from the support provided by the extended family could
slow down fertility decline, thereby increasing population growth.
On the other hand, non-commercial circulation of subsistence crop
surpluses (through exchanges of foodstuffs for manufactured goods
between urban and rural areas within families with migrant members)
could discourage farmers from growing them, thereby reducing food
production.25/ If what farmers receive from their urban kin does not
exceed what they provide them with in return, and they do not reap
enough profit from this exchange, this system of family assistance
could threaten subsistence production.
ii) Income Diversification and Management
Remittances can be of great significance to a rural family and
comprise a considerable portion of the household income. The
complexity and wide range of impact of remittances in rural areas
has been well illustrated in a study in the Philippines which
showed that: a) for some families, remittances are a survival
strategy than ensures subsistence but does not necessarily lead to
significant improvement in living stardards; b) for other families,
remittances are a means with which to invest in agriculture or in
their children's education; and c) relatively better-off families
use remittances to invest in productive activities through
purchasing agricultural land and growing cash crops.26/
Remittances sometimes help to alleviate rural poverty and relieve
women from physical burden by withdrawing them from arduous farm
labour. For example, in the Near East -- where remittances have
raised rural living standards significantly in a number of areas --
many families are able to subsist without increasing female farm
labour. In other cases, however, women continue to produce most of
the food for the family, while remittances are used for other
purposes.27/
However, male migration does not always lead to more income for
the farm household. In Lesotho, where nearly half of rural
households are headed by women, one survey found that fewer than
half of those women received any remittances from their absent men.
Research in Pakistan and India shows that migrant men send
remittances to their fathers -- to pay debts or buy land-- rather
than to their wives who are running the households.28/ In Malaysia,
most of the remittances are used to maintain rural families or
repay social debt and only a small portion of the remittances are
used directly as investment for rural development.29/
Remittances may not always end up in the area of origin of the
migrant and, if they do, they are not always put to productive use
within the village or the community. Often, they are simply too
low to bring the family above the poverty line, and women's
dependence on their husbands and kinsmen increases. If wives
receive remittances only irregularly or not at all they are forced
to engage in whatever non-agricultural wage-jobs are available in
order to provide for their families.30/
Moreover, remittances do not always improve women's position
within their families, as key decisions may still continue to be
made by men. Nevertheless, there is evidence that the status of
women can be enhanced through higher living standard thanks to
migrant remittances. A study in Egypt, for example, shows that
migrant wives acquire major new financial, productive, and
supervisory responsibilities and, in fact, succeed in separating
themselves from the traditional patterns of extended household
production and consumption. Some invest in farming, but, most
frequently, remittances are used to invest in women's non-
agricultural occupations.31/ From the perspective of women's needs,
the positive effects of the use of migrants' remittances in many
countries have been improvements in community infrastructure and
services, ranging from health care centers to technological
modernization, such as the installation of communal grain mills,
motor pumps, etc.
Female remittances appear to end up more frequently in the area
of origin than male remittances. In Malaysia, the Philippines and
Thailand migrant unmarried daughters are subject to greater
pressures than sons to share their income with the family. One
study of migrant women in Bangkok found that three in four sent
back remittances.32/ Little is known, however, on how female
remittances are spent and/or invested in farm and off-farm
activities. The significance of migrant contributions in general
to agricultural investment and the resulting impact on farming
systems has yet to be systematically analyzed and the repercussions
on gender (division of labour, status, etc.) remain to be assessed.
iii) Family Structure and Fertility
Male rural-to-urban migration tends to conserve the traditional
kinship relations and patriarchal and seniority values, thus
reinforcing gender asymmetries in intra-household distribution and
management of productive resources. This has been recorded across
sub-Saharan Africa,33/ as well as in Latin America and Asia. For
example, studies in Mexico and the Dominican Republic have shown
that it is the extended family that decides who will migrate with
the view to consolidating the extended family structure.34/
Evidence on the impact of migration on fertility is inconclusive.
It has been argued that rather than lowering fertility, migration
seems to maintain it at high levels, by undermining the socio-
economic security of women. In order to cope with their own and
their families' insecurity and increased farm, off-farm and house
tasks, having a large number of children is for many women a
"technological solution" (in the absence of time-and labour-saving
farm and home technologies), and a means of ensuring future
financial support. Clearly, expectations outweigh any perceived
burden of child dependency.35/
Evidence from Africa also suggests that cash cropping and wage
migration tend to reinforce patriarchal relations and large family-
size. From a woman's perspective, the physical and income costs of
child-bearing are offset by the compatibility of child care and
work with food and export crop production, and by children's
contributions to her labour burden. In the case of Asia, however,
it has been shown that as migration has increased in incidence, the
decline in household size has also increased. One survey of rural
Thai households found that out-migration reduced household size by
an average of approximately half a person.
Female-headed Farm Households
Migration has potentially far-reaching effects on household
structure by increasing the incidence of female-headed households
through the sex-selectivity of migration. Female-headed households
are most vulnerable among the rural poor to seasonal stress and are
dependent on access to common property resources. When temporary
migration becomes long-term or permanent, de facto female-headed
households become farmers in their own right but encounter a
variety of production constraints. With, or without, the assistance
of their children, women often find it increasingly difficult to
adequately offset the labour contributions of their absentee
husbands.
A study in Botswana shows that female-headed households are
significantly poorer than other households as women are handicapped
in crop cultivation if they do not have a team of oxen or if they
lack the physical strength to handle ploughing oxen. Some women
hire farm labour, but scarcity of male labour at ploughing time
makes this help expensive in relation to women's earnings
potential. Also, while sizeable areas of land are hard to
cultivate without purchased inputs, women heads of household seldom
have the cash to purchase these in sufficient quantities, and thus
tend to cultivate smaller tracts than male heads of households.
Furthermore, agricultural modernization processes have been
associated with large-scale losses in the kinds of domestic crop
processing and field work on which female heads of households have
been traditionally dependent for their income and access to food
staples. Since time is their scarcest resource and they need a
crop which gives the highest possible output per labour hour, many
women farmers in Africa are replacing traditional subsistence
crops, such as yams, with cassava (which gives a much higher yield
of starch per labour hour but is less nutritious).
The Interface Between Gender, the Rural-Urban Continuum and Farming
Systems
An important but neglected facet of migration is the rural-urban
continuum. Contrary to popular belief, male and female migrants do
not simply become urban dwellers, thereby permanently severing ties
with their rural origins. In fact, most maintain close links with
their rural home areas, help their families invest in agriculture
and land and some eventually resettle in their villages. Yet, the
urban-rural dichotomy persists. This is partly because
distinguishing rural and urban development and urban and rural
inhabitants is statistically convenient: "Persons belong or do not
belong to the urban (or the rural) category: there is no
intermediate state and as a result the notion of the distance
between the categories tends to be ignored. Therefore, a person
belonging to a rural area contiguous to an urban district receives
the same treatment as one far from any urban center.... This
[dichotomy] fits in nicely with the "push" and "pull" analysis and
has many advantages, except perhaps that it might be misleading for
rural development..." Over the last two decades in particular,
there has been a gradual blurring of the distinction between urban
and rural populations in developing and developed countries alike,
as a result of the increased mobility of people, goods, services,
capital and ideas.
An important dimension of the urban-rural continuum is the
circulation of staple foodstuffs outside the market, its impact on
food production and on the farmers producing subsistence crops (a
majority of whom are women). In the case of sub-Saharan Africa,
foodstuffs supplied by rural family members to urban migrants play
an important role in the economies. According to budget-
consumption surveys, in 1970, 15% of households in Bamako, 30% in
Abidjan, Bouak‚ and Lom‚ received food supplies on a regular basis
from the villages in exchange for services, particularly taking in
villagers' children during secondary schooling. This tradition is
reported to be intensifying throughout the region.
TABLE 2: Proportion of Households Receiving or Sending Aid
According to Place of Residence and Relation to Partner in C“te
d'Ivoire, 1985
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Abidjan Other urban Rural
Aid --------------------------------------------------
received sent received sent received sent
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Son or daughter 13.7 14.5 13.7 15.1 31.4 32.2
Father or
mother 36.8 42.1 31.9 40.9 11.6 12.7
Brother or 23.8 21 24.8 22 23.6 26.7
sister
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Source: Cote d'lvoire, Enquete permanente aupres des menages
1985, Abidjan, 1986, cited in Philippe Fargues, "Subsistence Crop
Deficit and Family Structure in sub-Saharan Africa," Population,
Institut National d'Etudes Demographiques (English Selection),
Vol. 2, 1990, p. 65.
These services or manufactured goods (including foodstuffs)
provided by urban dwellers are exchanged for subsistence foods,
which thus circulate from rural to urban areas outside the market.
In this transaction, it is the rural areas that lose in terms of
food exchange. According to one demographer: "The competition
between the family network and the urban food market could, a
priori, either encourage the farmers to produce a surplus of
subsistence food or dissuade them from doing so, depending on the
difference between what they receive from their urban kin and what
they give them. We suggest that, if this balance is negative, that
is, if the farmers do not feel they reap enough profit from the
exchange, this system [of family assistance] may well threaten
subsistence production."
This may have serious implications given the fact that urban
population food needs are in large part satisfied by agricultural
and other productive activities of rural men, women and children
(although peri-urban agriculture is also important). Many socio-
economic, demographic and environmental problems confronting cities
today have, in varying degrees, their roots in, or are the
reflection of, crises in rural areas. Thus, preventing or easing
urban problems can in part be effected by addressing them in the
context of the rural-urban continuum, rather than disparate urban
and rural development programmes. To give but one example, peri-
urban agricultural programmes need to take into account the
potential impact of such programmes on subsistence production in
rural areas.
B. Gender, Rural-to-Rural Migration and Land Tenure
This section will focus on the role of rural-to-rural
migration in non-population development programmes and on its
potentially catalytic effect in reshaping gender relations. The
Onchocerciasis Control Programme (OCP) in West Africa is used as a
case study.
What the case study shows is that migration deeply transforms the
relationship between people who have relocated and the land, since
those installed in new settlement areas do not own the land they
cultivate. In these circumstances, women's socio-cultural and
economic dependence on their husbands, which arose from the fact
that men had entrusted part of the land they owned before migrating
to their wives, has no longer a raison d'ˆtre. If advantage was
deliberately taken of the changed relationship between migrants and
the land and of its socio-cultural and economic implications, this
would facilitate women's access to and control over land.
Case Study on the Interface between Gender, Land Tenure and
Migration: The Onchocerciasis Control Programme in West Africa
The case of the Onchocerciasis Control Programme (OCP) in West
Africa illustrates how closely a `population' issue, such as
migration, interfaces with land tenure and gender issues and how
overlooking migration can jeopardize the sustainability of an
otherwise successful project. It also shows how new settlement
schemes can provide a unique opportunity to change land tenure
arrangements in such a way as to improve men and women's access to
land and enhance their socio-economic status. The change of
women's status, in particular, and the ensuing benefits for their
families are, in turn, likely to enhance the land settlement
schemes themselves.
Onchocerciasis, or river blindness, used to affect some 2.5
million people in West Africa, and as many as 60% of the adults in
some parts of the river valleys afflicted with the disease before
the onset of OCP in 1974. Villagers were forced to abandon their
communities en masse. The health toll was only one of the
disastrous effects of onchocerciasis. When OCP began, some of West
Africa's richest river lands had been left uncultivated for several
kilometers at a stretch. Food production had plummetted as people
abandoned fertile valleys and crowded onto marginally productive,
over-farmed lands, causing severe environmental degradation.
As a result of larvicide and medical campaigns in 11 sub-Saharan
African countries, over 25 million hectares of once-abandoned
arable land have been made suitable for resettlement and
cultivation. It has been estimated that this land area has the
potential to feed about 17 million people, using traditional
agricultural technologies and practices.
OCP has been hailed as one of the most successful medical and
development programmes in the developing world, virtually
eliminating river blindness as a public health hazard within the
programme area while also opening up to cultivation and
resettlement an area with considerable development potential.
However, the region is now facing considerable demographic
pressure on the available tracts of land which could jeopardize the
sustainability of the valley's exploitation. The very prosperity
of the settlers is threatening the fragile eco-systems of the river
valleys. Given the substantial and growing environmental
degradation that has accompanied resettlement, it has become
apparent that without settlement policies aimed at ensuring
security of land tenure, the very success of the project may be
compromised. A recent assessment of the programme indicated:
"Where once the enemy was the blackfly, today it is deforestation,
erosion, and extensive cultivation. Only if West Africa's
governments step in to assist and regulate new settlement will
these lands be saved from depletion, degradation and perhaps even
eventual abandonment once again."
However, even though the long-term objective of OCP has been to
turn the previously oncho-affected valleys into habitable areas
where people can safely live and work, the programme had not
originally foreseen the large-scale in-migration into the oncho-
freed valleys that took place following the control of the disease.
It had also not foreseen the potential shock waves of this
uncontrolled in-migration and their adverse socio-economic and
environmental consequences. As a result, OCP had not incorporated
resettlement policies and implementation mechanisms at the national
or at the regional levels as part of the programme.
This explains why data and information on demographic trends is
incomplete, particularly with regard to the influx of immigrants
that have already occupied a substantial part of the oncho-freed
valleys. There is no comprehensive socio-economic inventory on the
inhabitants of the valleys, such as baseline data on their
composition and origin; on the percentage of native peoples vis-a-
vis immigrants; and on the type of land/tenure agreements concluded
between native owners and immigrants, which are indispensable to
the sustainable development of the valleys. Similarly, data and
information on the occupancy rate of oncho-freed land, the
pressures being exerted on resettled land, and land carrying
capacity in relation to the agro-pastoral potential of the valleys
for sustainable exploitation is scanty.
A situation analysis on the resettlement of the oncho-freed
valeys is presently being planned to investigate: the socio-
economic characteristics of the populations that have resettled the
land; the types of settlements already established; socio-cultural
conditions and constraints; already established commercial
networks; income sources of different groups of farmers; and
migrant links with their areas of origin and families. FAO is now
the lead executing agency for the sustainable socio-economic
development of natural resources in the oncho-freed valleys and is
preparing a Plan of Action for proposals regarding a series of
local and limited sustainable development projects. FAO's initial
support includes the preparation of a demographic study and a
socio-economic survey, in collaboration with National Research
Institutes.
The sustainability of land/tenure arrangements and settlement
policies can also not be considered in isolation from gender
factors. Migration to the oncho- freed valleys has involved
considerable changes in farming and in lifestyle for the migrants.
Most migrants have moved to new agro-ecological zone, new farming
systems, crops and farming practices, a new socio-cultural
environment and different tenure arrangements. For this reason,
new settlements, as is the case with the West African oncho-freed
valleys, present a unique opportunity to promote land tenure
arrangements that protect the rights and interests of both men and
women farmers.
As seen in Module II, women tend to have more limited access to
land and to security of tenure than men in their respective socio-
cultural context. New land settlements can help re-shape gender
relations by modifying traditional land tenure arrangements, as men
cannot claim traditional or customary rights to land. This is
because in new settlements, former land tenure patterns which had
previously often favoured men in terms of land access, land
benefits, etc. no longer apply. This essentially means that
constraints to women's access to land are absent in the context of
new settlements, providing an opportunity to enhance women's socio-
economic and socio-cultural status by facilitating changes in
women's legal and institutional relationship to the land. In
particular, two components need to be addressed:
i) the need to change settlement/tenure arrangements and related
legislation and institutional arrangements in order to allocate
land to men and women on an equal basis and to ensure equal user
rights and security; and
ii) the need for legal literacy to inform men and women of
legislative changes and, particularly of women's land rights.
Supportive measures would also be necessary to change male and
female perceptions on rights to the new plots.
The Onchocerciasis Control Programme case study demonstrates how
what was originally designed as a purely medical programme with
some agricultural components evolved into a considerably more
complex multi-sectoral operation where demographic issues, and
particularly migration, assumed a central role. It also shows that
land settlement policies cannot be designed in isolation from
demographic issues. In fact, the case study strongly makes the case
for a systems approach to land/tenure, population and gender issues
by illustrating the shortcomings of vertical approaches to
development programmes. In particular, OCP shows how neglecting
demographic variables can have adverse repercussions on the
sustainability of land/tenure arrangements as well as on food
production and security. In addition, the programme can be used as
a pilot exercise to investigate the potential catalytic role that
migration can play in re-shaping gender relations through land
tenure policies that can ensure security of tenure for both men and
women, thereby contributing to the success and sustainability of
the overall programme.
Main Policy Issues
The demographic context of agricultural and rural development
programmes (including land/tenure and farming systems programmes)
needs to be recognized as an important variable that can play a
critical role to their success and sustainability. As such, it
needs to be incorporated in existing programmes and policies.
Migration can play a catalytic role in promoting changes in gender
relations and in enhancing men's and women's access to productive
resources. Improving the socio-economic status of women, in
particular, is, in turn, likely to contribute to changes in
fertility/mortality trends. To facilitate such changes in gender
relations and promote more equitable access to productive
resources, and particularly land, innovative land/tenure
arrangements and appropriate supporting measures need to be devised
and enforced.
Rural-to-urban male migration makes heavy demands on all family
members, but especially on women who are left behind in rural areas
to shoulder the responsibility of agricultural production and food
security. Labour shortages due to male out-migration may mean that
women often have to face: i) tighter time schedules and patterns of
time use and human energy inputs required in agricultural and home
production as well as an increased number of tasks and management
of productive resources; and ii) local norms which perpetuate their
inferior socio-economic status.
The impact of changing gender roles on the farm household
resulting from male or female rural-to-urban migration needs to be
better understood and documented. In particular, the differential
impact between male and female migration, labour profile
adjustments and corresponding changes in cropping patterns and
demographic strategies need to be further investigated. For
instance, the introduction of new technology and resulting changes
in farming systems need to be considered in the context of seasonal
labour migration (male/female, temporary/permanent) and of the
increased labour burdens they may entail for women.
The growing incidence in female-headed households that is being
observed in many developing countries needs to be reflected in
agriculture, land tenure and population policies and programmes.
In particular, changes in land tenure systems as a result of the
wide prevalence of female-headed households also need to be
assessed in terms of their implications for agricultural and
population policies. The out-migration of women from rural areas
and its potential impact on subsistence production and food
security need to be investigated.
Research Needs
To address these policy issues, the following areas have been
identified as starting points for research:
o the impact of migration-induced changes on the gender
division of labour and the household labour profile;
o the impact of rural mechanization on the displacement of
male, female and youth labour from rural areas;
o the significance of migrant contributions to agricultural
investment and the resulting impact on farming systems and the
repercussions on gender (division of labour, status, etc.);
o the consequences of migration-induced gaps in the
agricultural and rural labour force (including the shrinking and
ageing of the labour force) on production, food security and
sustainability;
o accurate information and data on migrants, by gender and age,
geographical and social origin, pre-migration livelihood
conditions, skills, education, etc., fertility/mortality trends; in
particular, the characteristics, trends and effects of temporary
mobility on fertility and mortality need to be established by
gender, age, and type of household; and
o guidelines on gender-responsive land settlement policies and
tenure arrangements that can allocate equal access to land and
security of tenure to men and women migrants.
ENDNOTES
1. Zoran Roca, "Urbanization and Rural Women: Impact of
Rural-to-Urban Migration," FAO, 1993, p. 1. For a comprehensive
discussion of the problems in defining migration, see Richard E.
Bilsborrow and UN Secretariat, "Internal Female Migration and
Development: An Overview," in Internal Migration of Women in
Developing Countries: Proceedings of the UN Expert Meeting on the
Feminization of Internal Migration, Mexico, 22-25 October 1991, UN,
New York, 1993, pp. 1-2.
2. Roca, ibid.
3. For a comprehensive introduction to the subject of female
migration in developing countries see Internal Migration of Women
in Developing Countries: Proceedings of the United Nations Expert
Meeting on the Feminization of Internal Migration, Mexico, 22-25
October 1991, UN, New York, 1993, and particularly Graeme J. Hugo's
"Migrant Women in Developing Countries," pp. 47-77.
4. National Perspectives on Population and Development: A Synthesis
of 168 National Reports Prepared for the International Conference
on Population and Development, 1995, p. 93.
5. Ogden, P.E., Migration and Geographical Change, Cambridge
University Press, 1984, cited in Zoran Roca, "Urbanization and
Rural Women," op. cit, p. 2.
6. Hugo, 1993, op. cit., p. 63.
7. M. d. L.A. Crummett, "The Women's Movement'. Ceres, 1992, No.
137, cited in ibid.
8. Condition de la femme et Population: le cas de l'Afrique
francophone, United Nations, Vienna, 1992, p. 54.
9. Migration and Urbanization in Asia and the Pacific:
Inter-relationships with Socio-Economic Development
and Evolving Policy Issues, United Nations, 1993, p. 15.
10. ESCAP, "Urbanization Patterns and Problems into the 21 st
Century in Asia and the Pacific," Migration and Urbanization in
Asia and the Pacific, op. cit., p. 19.
11. Marta Tienda and Karen Booth, "Migration, Gender and Social
Change: A Review and Reformulation," 1988, cited in Bilsborrow et
al., 1994, op. cit., p. 12.
12. J.C. Kroll, Contribution methodologique a l'etude du
developpement agricole en sciences sociales, Syntheses, Notes et
Debats, Laboratoire de Recherches de la Chaire de Sciences
Economiques de l'ENSSAA, Institut National de la Recherche
Agronomique, Dijon, 1985 No. 2.
13. Carol Colfer, "On Circular Migration: From the Distaff Side,"
in Guy Standing {ed.), Labour Circulation and
the Labour Process. cited in Hugo. 1994, op. cit., p. 67.
14. Philippe Fargues, "Subsistence Crop Deficit and Family
Structure in sub-Saharan Africa," Population,
Institut National d'Etudes Demographiques (English Selection),
vol. 2, 1990, p. 55.
15. H. Ware and D. Lucas, "Women Left Behind: The Changing Division
of Labour and its Effects on Agricultural Production," 1988, cited
in Condition de la Femme et Population: Le Cas de l'Afrique
Francophone, United Nations, Vienna, 1 9 92, p.69.
16. Final Mission Report, Farming Systems in the Dry Zone, Myanmar,
Agricultural Development and Environmental Rehabilitation in the
Dry Zone Project, July 1995, p. A1.30.
17. Ingrid Palmer, The Impact of Male Out-Migration on Women in
Farming. Women's Roles & Gender Differences in Development: Cases
for Planners. Kumarian Press, West Hartford, 1985, cited in Roca,
1993, op. cit., p. 3.
18. FAO, "Women and Population in Agricultural and Rural
Development in Sub-Saharan Africa," Women in Agricultural
Development No.5, 1992 and Crummett, 1992, op. cit., cited in ibid.
19. FAO, 1992c. Rural Women in Latin America - Rural Development,
Access to Land, Migration and Legislation, op.cit., cited in Roca.
1993, op. cit., p. 4.
20. Palmer, 1985, op. cit., cited in Roca, 1993, os. cit., p. 4.
21. S. Selvaratnam, "Consequences of Population Change at the
National Level: The Asian Context," Proceedings of the Regional
Seminar on Consequences of Population Change in Asia, Studies on
Consequences of Population Change in Asia Comparative Findings,
Thailand, 7-10 April 1992, p. 72.
22. This excludes countries which have reached their potential
population-supporting capacity. Fargues, 1989, op. cit., p. 58.
23. Other factors include the substitution of cash crops for
subsistence crops and schooling of children. See Fargues, 1989. op.
cit., p. 58.
24. Derek Byerlee, "Rural-Urban Migration in Africa," cited in
Theodore D. Fuller, "Rural-to-Urban Population Redistribution," in
L.A. Peter Gosling and Linda Y.C. Lim (eds.), Population
Redistribution: Patterns, Policies and Prospects, UNFPA, Policy
Development Studies, No. 2,1979, p. 31.
25. Fargues, op. cit., p. 66.
26. L. Trager, Migration and Remittances: Urban income and rural
households in the Philippines, 1984, in Hugo, "Migration and
Rural-Urban Linkages in the ESCAP Region," 1993, op. cit., p. 108.
27. FAO, Intraregional Labour Mobility and Agricultural Development
in the Near East: Phenomenon, Impact and Policy implications. FAO
Economic and Social Development Paper 94,1990.
28. Roca, 1993, op. cit., p. 4.
29. A. Ahmad, "Choice and the Small Farmer in Baling, Kedah,
Peninsular Malaysia," in J. Hirst, J. Overton,
B. Allen and Y.J. Byron, (eds.), Small-scale Agriculture, Canberra:
Commonwealth Geographical Bureau,1988.
30. FAO, Women and Population in Agricultural and Rural Development
in Sub-Saharan Africa. Women in Agricultural Development No.5,
1992.
31. Palmer, 1985, cited in Roca, 1993, op. cit., p. 5.
32. Migration and the Family, UN, Vienna, Occasional Paper Series,
No. 14, 1994, p. 9.
33. FAO, Rural Women: The Closing Link Between Population and
Environment, Discussion Note at the Expert
Group Meeting on Population and Women, Gaborone, Botswana,1992,
cited in Roca "Urbanization and Rural Women: The Impact of
Rural-to-Urban Migration," 1993, p. 6.
34. FAO, Rural Women In Latin America - Rural Development, Access
to Land, Migration and Legislation, 1992, cited in ibid., p. 6.
35. Kossoudji, S. and Mueller, E.1983. The Economic and Demographic
Status of Female-Headed Households in Rural Botswana. Economic
Development and Cultural Change, No.4, in Roca, 1993, op. cit.,
p. 7.
36. Penporn Tirasawat, "The Impact of Migration on Conditions at
the Origin: A study on selected villages in Thailand," 1985, cited
in Philip Guest, "Consequences of Population Change at the
Household Level," Proceedings of the Regional Seminar on
Consequences of Population Change in Asia, op. cit., p. 110.
37. Graeme Hugo, "Migrant Women in Developing Countries," Paper
presented at the UN Expert Group on the Feminization of Internal
Migration, Mexico, 1991, cited in Philip Guest. "Consequences of
Population Change at the Household Level," in Proceedings of the
Regional Seminar on Consequences of Population change in Asia,
Studies on Consequences of Population Change in Asia: Comparative
Findings, Thailand, 7-10 1992, p. 110.
38. Roca, 1994, op. cit., p. 6.
39. Kossoudji and Mueller, 1983, op. cit. In Namibia, according
to one observer, some female-headed households farm only half to
one-third of their arable land due to lack of labour and inputs.
See Namibia National Report to the Fourth World Conference on
Women, Office of the President, Department of Women
Affairs, November 1994, p. 38.
40. Jiggins, 1985, cited in Roca, 1994, OD. cit., p. 6.
41. Jacques du Guerny, Migration and Rural Development, FAO, 1978,
pp. 36-37.
42. Hugo argues that there has been "a convergence between urban
and rural lifestyles, in the economic, social and demographic
characteristics of urban and rural populations, in the types of
services available in urban and rural areas and in the levels of
personal mobility of rural and urban populations," in "Migration
and Urban-Rural Linkages in the ESCAP region." 1993, op. cit.,
p. 92.
43. Cote d'lvoire, Enquete permanente aupres des menages 1985,
Abidjan, 1986, cited in Fargues, 1989, op. cit., p. 64.
44. Ibid., p. 65.
45. Ibid., pp. 65-66. The quote would read better if it were
slightly rephrased: "The competition... either encourage the
farmers to produce staple foodstuffs or dissuade them..."
46. Zoran Roca, "Rural Development, the Environment and Migration,"
Background Note to the Expert Group Meeting on Population
Distribution and Migration, Bolivia January 1993, pp. 7-9.
47. The programme covers Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d'lvoire, Ghana,
Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo)
and is supported by 23 donor agencies, including the World Bank,
WHO, UNDP, and others.
48. The Challenges of Success: Land Settlement and Environmental
Change in the Onchocerciasis Control Programme Area, Committee of
Sponsoring Agencies, OCP, 1994, p. 1.
49. ibid.
50. FAO, Lettre d'accord pour la realisation d'un etude des
capacit‚s de charge demographique dans les pays
du programme de controle de l'onchocercose pour une occupation
optimale des terres sous controle, 1994, pp. 1-2.
51. Migration and Urbanization in Asia and the Pacific:
Inter-relationships with Socio-Economic Development
and Evolving Policy Issues, United Nations, 1993, p. 15.
FOOTNOTES
a/ The remainder 50% of the projected growth in the world's
urban population will be largely through natural increase
of urban inhabitants.
b/ While there are distinctive differences between
instrinsically urban and intrinsically rural
populations, urban/rural differentiation is more
appropriately perceived as a continuum rather than a
strict dichotomy. Graemo Hugo, "Migration and Rural-
Urban Linkages in the ESCAP Region," Migration and
Urbanization in Asia and the Pacific: Interrelationship
with Socio-Economic Development and Evolving Policy
Issues, United Nations, New York, 1993, p. 92.
c/ Recent migration research has shown that, contrary to
popular belief, female migrants constitute roughtly
half of all internal migrants in developing countries. In
some regions, female migrants even predominate: in most
South-eastern Asian countries with data available, women
outnumber men among rural-to-urban migrants (with the
expection of Brunei Darussalam and the "frontier" area
of Sabah in Malaysia). In the 1970s, the dominance of women
outnumber men in net rural-urban migration; see Hugo, 1994
op.cit., pp. 47-53. Conversely, rural out-migration
patterns tend to be predominantly male in all countries
of Africa, parts of Asia and the Pacific, and the Near East.
d/ In some countries, like Lesotho, where just over half of
adult males work in South Africa, more than half of all rural
households are headed by women. The Demographic Profile:
Sustained High Mortality and Fertility and Migration of
Employment," in Adepoju and Oppong, 1994, op. cit., p. 32).
Analytical data is needed, however, to analyze the impact
of increasing numbers of female-headed households on
existing land tenure systems and the institutional
mechanisms through which these households can be assisted
with supportive land tenure arrangements.
e/ "Whereas in Gabon and the Congo, men constitute the
majority of migrants to cities; in the Philippines
and Panama it is the women who dominate the urban migration
flows. As a result, in the rural areas of Gabon, there are
only 83 men for every 100 women, while in the rural areas
of Panama there are 114 men for every 100 women." National
Perspectives on Population and Development: A Synthesis of
168 National Reports Prepared for the International
Conference on Population and Development, 1995, p. 93.
f/ Circular migration refers to short-term sojourners.
One from of circular migration is seasonal migration,
with the migrant returning to the rural area at times
when his labour is needed for agriculture.
g/ In Malaysia, rural-to-urban migration has resulted
in labour shortages and the ageing of the labour force
in the traditional plantation agriculture. See Tey
Nai Peng and Halimah Awang, "Some Implications of
Rural-Urban Migration in the ESCAP Region," Issues
in the Study of Rural-Urban Migration: Report and
Papers of the Expert Group Meeting on Trends,
Patterns and Implications of Rural-Urban Migration, Bangkok
Thailand, 3-6 November 1992, United Nations, 1994
p. 25.
h/ Fargues argues that the reason why (unpaid) subsistence
farming survives in much of Africa is because it is
run by women, op. cit., 1989, p. 57.