The Impact of Caregiving of Rural Women on Agricultural Production

Liqin ZhangCollege of Economics and Management

China Agricultural University

Introduction

• Left-behind women and agricultural feminization, Women as important food and cash-crop producers– Estimates from the FAO show that women account for more

than half the labor required to produce the food consumed in the developing world.

– In China, more than half agricultural labors are women• 59% in 2009 (Linxiu Zhang, 2011)• 50.4% in 2009, 51.5% in 2012 (working days, data of Rural Fixed

Observation Office)

Introduction

• Care of household members– Unpaid care work– Work directed toward meeting the needs of children ,the eldly, and

the sick and disabled, particularly in relation to children, are time-intensive

– Including direct care work and indirect care (Folbre, 2006) • Direct care: feeding, bathing• Indirect care : preparing food, doing laundry, cleaning, collecting wood or

carrying water

– Domain of women, regarded as women’s responsibility

Introduction

• How does caregiving affect agricultural labor supply & production?– Supply of labor to agriculture: does it change the amount, or

composition of labor supply to agriculture?

• Hypothesis: It elevates agricultural labor supply?

– Impact on agricultural production• Do we see evidence that household structure/ composition affects farm production

choice?• How does burden of care work affect earnings from agriculture, returns to labor?

Data

• The data set will be used in this research was collected by Rural Fixed Observation Office (RFOO), the survey department of the Rural Center for Rural Economy (RCRE), a research unit affiliated with the China  Ministry of Agriculture. The survey unit designed and administered one of the most comprehensive farm household surveys in China over the past 20 years.

• The samples of this paper include 8000 rural households and about 32000 individuals from 9 provinces from 2003-12. The provinces include Shanxi, Liaoning, Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi, Guangdong, Sichuan, Yunnan and Shaanxi.

Table 1 Average Working days by gender in rural area

Women Men

Farm Non-farm Farm Non-farm

2003 95 95 85 1072004 96 96 85 1552005 93 97 84 1552006 87 99 77 1602007 80 107 72 1652008 77 101 70 1622009 76 105 68 165

Especially after 2007, rural woman’s farm working days decrease significantly as men, but are still higher than men’s.

Summary Statistics

Table 2 Average agricultural labor input of rural households in 2009 (days)

9 provinces3 provinces

(Anhui, Jiangxi and Sichuan, migarating-out)

Mean Std. Dev. Mean Std. Dev.

Female 109.15 145.93 101.28 124.03

Male 107.26 144.15 95.39 113.33Obs 8269 3111

In 9 sample provinces, average female agricultural labor input per household is about more 2 days than male’s, 50.4% of total agricultural labor. In Anhui, Jiangxi and Sichuan which are 3 of top ten migrating-out provinces, average female agricultural labor input is about more 6 days than male’s, 51.5% of total agricultural labor.

Summary Statistics

Summary Statistics

HH with kid's age<=2 HH with kid's age<=12 HH with the elderly HH with the sick

With without with without with without with withoutFemale Farm 177.3 117.4 123.1 118.4 147.5 116.4 137.6 114.7 Off-farm 139.1 159.1 130.5 177.0 162.8 157.4 129.4 167.4Male Farm 132.2 98.9 92.6 105.9 131.8 95.9 111.7 96.9 Off-farm 271.4 234.0 214.1 250.7 222.0 237.8 202.0 246.8

Care responsibility may reduce the possibility of nonfarm labor participation. Women with more “care” responsibility are stuck in agricultural production.

Table 3 Average labor input of rural households with wife aged 25-45 ( work days)

　 hh with kid aged 0-2 hh with kid age 3-12 hh with the elderly hh with the sick

　 With without with without with without with withoutarea(mu) 5.4 6.2 5.9 6.3 7.2 6.0 6.1 6.1sown area(mu) 4.6 5.4 5.1 5.5 7.3 5.1 6.1 5.2production(kg) 1856.5 2027.0 1879.7 2114.0 2343.5 1971.6 2074.2 2000.8yield(kg) 408.3 415.4 411.2 417.6 406.3 416.5 391.6 424.2revenue per mu(yuan) 714.8 716.3 715.7 716.6 724.5 714.9 669.1 734.6

fetiliser per mu(yuan) 107.6 105.6 106.4 105.3 111.8 104.7 109.0 104.5

pesticide per mu(yuan) 22.5 21.4 20.9 21.8 24.1 21.0 19.8 22.1

irrigation per mu(yuan) 8.9 11.7 11.8 11.5 11.4 11.6 9.4 12.5

machine service per mu(yuan)

35.7 39.7 38.8 40.0 45.7 38.5 39.7 39.4

labor input per mu (days) 16.4 18.1 17.0 18.8 16.8 18.2 15.8 18.9

Table 4 Care and food production (Hh with wife aged 25-45)

The houshold with more “care” responsibility has less productivity

Summary Statistics

Rice CornLn(labor) Coef. Coef. Coef. Coef.

Ln(area) 0.731*** 0.731*** 0.649*** 0.259***Ln(wage) -0.311*** -0.312*** -0.215*** 0.458***Ln(price of pesticide ) -0.142*** -0.141*** 0.011 -0.120***Ln(price of fertiliser) 0.001 0.000 -0.039* 0.022Ln(hhdsize)(>=15) 0.088** 0.070* 0.202*** -0.035Female labor ratio in agriculture 0.105* 0.096* 0.234*** 0.203*Husbandedu -0.001 0.000 0.007 0.001Husbandage -0.001 0.000Wifeedu -0.002 -0.002 -0.021*** 0.036***Wifeage -0.001 -0.001Kid(<=5) -0.003 0.023Kid(6-14) 0.065** -0.022The sick -0.006 -0.027The elderly(>=70) -0.008 -0.053Village kindergarten (yes=1) -0.234*** 0.139***F test for Demographic Characteristic

1.81(.09)

1.72(.09)

7.81(.00)

2.85(.00)

No. of observations 1433 1433 1245 685

Table 5 Demand for LaborDepend variable: Log person days employed(p values for F tests)

HH composition have effect on labor demand.

Preliminary Estimation Results

• Gap of agricultural productivity between female-managed farm and male-managed farm

restricted profit function avoiding endogeneity

Preliminary Estimation Results

Table 6 OLS estimatimation of profit function

Corn productivity of female-maintained farm is slightly less than male-maintained farm.

Preliminary Estimation Results

Findings

• Caregiving burden reduce women nonfarm labor participation significantly and let them stuck in agriculture

• Intensive care giving work depressing the time of rural women, especially for left-behind women, will affect agricultural productivity.

• Female-maintained farm is less productive than male-maintained farm in corn production