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Conservation agriculture and gendered livelihoods in Northwestern Cambodia: decision-making, space and access

DOI:10.1007/s10460-016-9718-z
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Daniel Sumner at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Daniel Sumner
Maria Elisa Christie at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Maria Elisa Christie
Stéphane Boulakia at Cirad - La recherche agronomique pour le développement
Stéphane Boulakia
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Abstract and Figures

Smallholder farmers in Rattanakmondol District, Battambang Province, Cambodia face challenges related to soil erosion, declining yields, climate change, and unsustainable tillage-based farming practices in their efforts to increase food production within maize-based systems. In 2010, research for development programs began introducing agricultural production systems based on conservation agriculture (CA) to smallholder farmers located in four communities within Rattanakmondol District as a pathway for addressing these issues. Understanding gendered practices and perspectives is integral to adapting CA technologies to the needs of local communities. This research identifies how gender differences regarding farmers’ access to assets, practices, and engagement in intra-household negotiations could constrain or facilitate the dissemination of CA. Our mixed-methods approach includes focus group discussions, semi-structured interviews, famer field visits, and a household survey. Gender differences in access to key productive assets may affect men’s and women’s individual ability to adapt CA. Farmers perceive the practices and technologies of CA as labor-saving, with the potential to reduce men’s and women’s labor burden in land-preparation activities. However, when considered in relation to the full array of productive and reproductive livelihood activities, CA can disproportionately affect men’s and women’s labor. Decisions about agricultural livelihoods were not always made jointly, with socio-cultural norms and responsibilities structuring an individual’s ability to participate in intra-household negotiations. While gender differences in power relations affect intra-household decision-making, men and women household members collectively negotiate the transition to CA-based production systems.
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Conservation agriculture and gendered livelihoods
in Northwestern Cambodia: decision-making, space and access
Daniel Sumner
1
•Maria Elisa Christie
1
•Ste
´phane Boulakia
2
Accepted: 23 June 2016 / Published online: 11 August 2016
Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2016
Abstract Smallholder farmers in Rattanakmondol District,
Battambang Province, Cambodia face challenges related to
soil erosion, declining yields, climate change, and unsus-
tainable tillage-based farming practices in their efforts to
increase food production within maize-based systems. In
2010, research for development programs began introduc-
ing agricultural production systems based on conservation
agriculture (CA) to smallholder farmers located in four
communities within Rattanakmondol District as a pathway
for addressing these issues. Understanding gendered prac-
tices and perspectives is integral to adapting CA tech-
nologies to the needs of local communities. This research
identifies how gender differences regarding farmers’ access
to assets, practices, and engagement in intra-household
negotiations could constrain or facilitate the dissemination
of CA. Our mixed-methods approach includes focus group
discussions, semi-structured interviews, famer field visits,
and a household survey. Gender differences in access to
key productive assets may affect men’s and women’s
individual ability to adapt CA. Farmers perceive the
practices and technologies of CA as labor-saving, with the
potential to reduce men’s and women’s labor burden in
land-preparation activities. However, when considered in
relation to the full array of productive and reproductive
livelihood activities, CA can disproportionately affect
men’s and women’s labor. Decisions about agricultural
livelihoods were not always made jointly, with socio-cul-
tural norms and responsibilities structuring an individual’s
ability to participate in intra-household negotiations. While
gender differences in power relations affect intra-house-
hold decision-making, men and women household mem-
bers collectively negotiate the transition to CA-based
production systems.
Keywords Gender Livelihoods Conservation
agriculture Decision-making Cambodia
Abbreviations
CA Conservation agriculture
CIRAD Centre de Coope
´ration International en
Recherche pour le De
´veloppement
DMC Direct-seeding mulch based cropping
systems
FGD Focus group discussion
FPE Feminist political ecology
KHR Cambodian Riel
KR Khmer Rouge
MAFF Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Fishers
MFI Micro-finance institution
OIRED Office of International Research, Education
and Development
PADAC Projet d’Appui a
`la Diversification Agricole
du Cambodge
SANREM
IL
Sustainable Agriculture and Natural
Resource Management Innovation Lab
&Daniel Sumner
dmsumner@vt.edu
Maria Elisa Christie
mechristie@vt.edu
Ste
´phane Boulakia
stephane.boulakia@cirad.fr
1
Office of International Research, Education and
Development, Virginia Tech, 526 Prices Fork Road,
Blacksburg, VA 24060, USA
2
Centre de Coope
´ration International en Recherche
Agronomique pour le De
´veloppement, El Aceituno - Carrera
5a n29-32 Officina 282, Centro Commercial la Quinta,
Ibague, Colombia
123
Agric Hum Values (2017) 34:347–362
DOI 10.1007/s10460-016-9718-z
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
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