IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ags/afjare/333976.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Labour-saving technologies mitigate the effect of women’s agriculture time-use constraints on stunting in rural Uganda

Author

Listed:
  • Namulondo, Racheal
  • Bashaasha, Bernard

Abstract

Women’s time allocation is a dimension of women’s empowerment in agriculture, and is recognised as a pathway through which agriculture can affect child nutritional status in developing countries. Longer hours of farm work can potentially increase women’s time constraints, reducing the time allocated to child-caring responsibilities and raising the risk of poor child nutritional status. Using a three-wave household panel dataset from the Feed the Future Innovation Lab on Nutrition surveys in the north and southwest of Uganda, we tested the hypothesis that the negative effect of women’s agriculture time-use constraints on child stunting is mitigated for households that use labour or timesaving agricultural technologies (LSATs). The results show a positive and significant association between the number of hours per day that women spend on agricultural work and the risk of stunting in children aged zero to 23 months who live in households that do not use animal traction for ploughing. However, this association is statistically insignificant, and even turns negative for households that adopted the labour-saving technology. Our findings indicate that LSATs have the potential to lessen a household’s agricultural workload, giving mothers more child-caring time, and hence improving child nutritional status. Therefore, agriculture could have better nutritional outcomes if policies and programmes were designed to have interventions that reduce the workload in farming activities and thus reduce pressure on women’s time.

Suggested Citation

  • Namulondo, Racheal & Bashaasha, Bernard, 2022. "Labour-saving technologies mitigate the effect of women’s agriculture time-use constraints on stunting in rural Uganda," African Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, African Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 17(3), September.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:afjare:333976
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.333976
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/333976/files/6.-Namulondo-Bashaasha.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.333976?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rama Lionel Ngenzebuke & Yoko Akachi, 2017. "Female work status and child nutritional outcome in Nigeria," WIDER Working Paper Series 196, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    2. Quisumbing, Agnes R. & Pandolfelli, Lauren, 2010. "Promising Approaches to Address the Needs of Poor Female Farmers: Resources, Constraints, and Interventions," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 581-592, April.
    3. Hoddinott, John & Haddad, Lawrence, 1995. "Does Female Income Share Influence Household Expenditures? Evidence from Cote d'Ivoire," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 57(1), pages 77-96, February.
    4. Bethelhem Legesse Debela & Esther Gehrke & Matin Qaim, 2021. "Links between Maternal Employment and Child Nutrition in Rural Tanzania," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 103(3), pages 812-830, May.
    5. Rama Lionel Ngenzebuke & Yoko Akachi, 2017. "Female work status and child nutritional outcome in Nigeria," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2017-196, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    6. Karen A. Ricci & Federico Girosi & Phillip I. Tarr & Yee-Wei Lim & Carl Mason & Mark Miller & James Hughes & Lorenz von Seidlein & Jan M. Agosti & Richard L. Guerrant, 2006. "Reducing stunting among children: the potential contribution of diagnostics," Nature, Nature, vol. 444(1), pages 29-38, November.
    7. Palacios-Lopez, Amparo & Christiaensen, Luc & Kilic, Talip, 2017. "How much of the labor in African agriculture is provided by women?," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 52-63.
    8. Ruth Haug & Dismas L. Mwaseba & Donald Njarui & Mokhele Moeletsi & Mufunanji Magalasi & Mupenzi Mutimura & Feyisa Hundessa & Julie T. Aamodt, 2021. "Feminization of African Agriculture and the Meaning of Decision-Making for Empowerment and Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-16, August.
    9. Johnston, Deborah & Stevano, Sara & Malapit, Hazel J. & Hull, Elizabeth & Kadiyala, Suneetha, 2018. "Review: Time Use as an Explanation for the Agri-Nutrition Disconnect: Evidence from Rural Areas in Low and Middle-Income Countries," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 8-18.
    10. Bahiigwa, Godfrey & Rigby, Dan & Woodhouse, Philip, 2005. "Right Target, Wrong Mechanism? Agricultural Modernization and Poverty Reduction in Uganda," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 481-496, March.
    11. Debela, Bethelhem Legesse & Gehrke, Esther & Qaim, Matin, 2019. "Maternal employment and child nutrition in rural Tanzania," 2019 Sixth International Conference, September 23-26, 2019, Abuja, Nigeria 295833, African Association of Agricultural Economists (AAAE).
    12. Lauren C. Manzione & Heidi Kriser & Emily G. Gamboa & Curtis M. Hanson & Generose Mulokozi & Osiah Mwaipape & Taylor H. Hoj & Mary Linehan & Scott Torres & P. Cougar Hall & Josh H. West & Benjamin T. , 2019. "Maternal Employment Status and Minimum Meal Frequency in Children 6-23 Months in Tanzania," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(7), pages 1-10, March.
    13. Olivia Nankinga & Betty Kwagala & Eddy J Walakira, 2019. "Maternal employment and child nutritional status in Uganda," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(12), pages 1-14, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bethelhem Legesse Debela & Esther Gehrke & Matin Qaim, 2021. "Links between Maternal Employment and Child Nutrition in Rural Tanzania," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 103(3), pages 812-830, May.
    2. repec:ags:aaea22:335848 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Kassie, M., 2018. "The nutrition impacts of women’s empowerment in Kenyan agriculture: Application of the multinomial endogenous switching treatment regression," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 276003, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    4. Pierotti, Rachael S. & Friedson-Ridenour, Sophia & Olayiwola, Olubukola, 2022. "Women farm what they can manage: How time constraints affect the quantity and quality of labor for married women’s agricultural production in southwestern Nigeria," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    5. Joshua Sikhu Okonya & Netsayi Noris Mudege & Anne M. Rietveld & Anastase Nduwayezu & Déo Kantungeko & Bernadette Marie Hakizimana & John Njuki Nyaga & Guy Blomme & James Peter Legg & Jürgen Kroschel, 2019. "The Role of Women in Production and Management of RTB Crops in Rwanda and Burundi: Do Men Decide, and Women Work?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(16), pages 1-15, August.
    6. Chrisendo, Daniel & Krishna, Vijesh V. & Siregar, Hermanto & Qaim, Matin, 2020. "Land-use change, nutrition, and gender roles in Indonesian farm households," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    7. Aziz, Noshaba & Nisar, Qasim Ali & Koondhar, Mansoor Ahmed & Meo, Muhammad Saeed & Rong, Kong, 2020. "Analyzing the women’s empowerment and food security nexus in rural areas of Azad Jammu & Kashmir, Pakistan: By giving consideration to sense of land entitlement and infrastructural facilities," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    8. Ingutia, Rose & Sumelius, John, 2021. "Do farmer groups improve the situation of women in agriculture in rural Kenya?," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 25(1), June.
    9. Van den Broeck, Goedele & Mardulier, Myrthe & Maertens, Miet, 2021. "All that is gold does not glitter: Income and nutrition in Tanzania," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    10. Burrone, Sara & Giannelli, Gianna Claudia, 2023. "Do Households Where Women Own Land Fare Better for Food Security? Evidence for Tanzania," IZA Discussion Papers 16382, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Cheryl Doss, 2015. "Women and Agricultural Productivity: What Does the Evidence Tell Us?," Working Papers 1051, Economic Growth Center, Yale University.
    12. Vandercasteelen, Joachim & Dereje, Mekdim & Minten, Bart & Taffesse, Alemayehu Seyoum, 2016. "Row planting teff in Ethiopia: Impact on farm-level profitability and labor allocation," ESSP working papers 92, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    13. Teklewold, Hailemariam, 2023. "Understanding gender differences on the choices of a portfolio of climate-smart agricultural practices in sub-saharan Africa," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 29(C).
    14. Mottaleb, K. & Erenstein, O., 2018. "Gender Differentiated Impacts of Commodity Price Shocks on Households’ Consumption Behavior: A Natural Experiment," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 275915, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    15. Aziz, Noshaba & Ren, Yanjun & Rong, Kong & Zhou, Jin, 2021. "Women’s empowerment in agriculture and household food insecurity: Evidence from Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK), Pakistan," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    16. Shikuku, K.M., 2018. "Information exchange links, knowledge exposure, and adoption of agricultural technologies in Northern Uganda," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 275974, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    17. Joachim Vandercasteelen & Mekdim Dereje & Bart Minten & Alemayehu Seyoum Taffesse, 2018. "Labour, profitability and gender impacts of adopting row planting in Ethiopia," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 45(4), pages 471-503.
    18. Melaku, Astewale Bimr & Qaim, Matin & Debela, Bethelhem Legesse, 2023. "Maternal employment in high-value agriculture and child nutrition: Evidence from the Ethiopian cut-flower industry," Discussion Papers 338968, University of Bonn, Center for Development Research (ZEF).
    19. Sangwan, Nikita & Kumar, Shalander, 2021. "Labor force participation of rural women and the household’s nutrition: Panel data evidence from SAT India," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    20. Cheryl R. Doss, 2018. "Women and agricultural productivity: Reframing the Issues," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 36(1), pages 35-50, January.
    21. Wouterse, Fleur Stephanie, 2016. "Empowerment and agricultural production: Evidence from rural households in Niger:," IFPRI discussion papers 1509, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Labor and Human Capital;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:afjare:333976. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aaaeaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.