Advancing Gender Equity Justice through care-inclusive Farmer Field and Business Schools

The unequal distribution of unpaid care work disadvantages women and girls in Tanzania and contributes to the significant gender gap in agricultural productivity and income. Researchers and specialists are teaming up to test an enhanced version of the Farmer Field and Business School program with modules on care work to better understand how to scale up positive gender equality impacts.

Care work and the agricultural productivity gap

Women’s unpaid care and domestic work and unpaid labour on family farms restrict their access to opportunities to increase productivity and income (e.g., by purchasing agricultural machinery, pesticides and fertilizers, and inputs for high-value cash crops). The government recognizes this challenge through its Tanzania Generation Equality Program, which fosters gender equality across social, economic, political and cultural domains. The program emphasizes economic justice and rights and includes significant investments in gender-responsive care services and efforts to engage men in unpaid care and domestic work.

Integrating care in trainings for farmers

The Farmer Field and Business School is a training program using a mix of practical approaches, including experimentation and peer learning, to improve the productivity and profitability of small-scale farmers. The curriculum is gender-transformative, market-oriented and nutrition-sensitive. A new version of this model, enhanced with modules specifically on care work, is being developed in the Iringa District of Tanzania. It will be evaluated for its impact on gender norms, agricultural livelihoods and distribution of unpaid care work.