The social and gendered nature of ginger production and commercialization: a case study of the Rai, Lepcha and Brahmin-Chhetri in Sikkim and Kalimpong, West Bengal, India
2006
C. Gurung | N. Gurung
This paper explores strategies for involving women in the management and control of ginger production in India. The focus is on the social and gendered nature of ginger production, commercialisation and disease management. <br /><br />The authors argue that the future of ginger production and commercialisation is characterised by both constraints and opportunities. They highlight that poor farmers have little land and can’t cultivate much ginger, as they require all their land to grow subsistence crops. They are also unable to afford experiments, unlike those with more land. In Central Pandam, they note that poor farmers are usually migrants from Nepal, do not own any land legally and often learn from the farmers for whom they work as wage labourers. <br /><br />A number of challenges faced by women are listed including: the major constraint women face is the lack of ownership of land; in all cases it is the male head of the family who legally owns the land women have limited access to credit, especially from formal institutions like banks, as land is the most common collateral women have no time to take an active part in the marketing of ginger, which limits their opportunities to control cash income socioculturally, it is not acceptable for women to be active and 'loud', which makes it difficult for them to take an active role in decision making. <br />
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