The complicated gendering of farming and household food responsibilities in northern Ghana

Development policy narratives about gender in African agriculture have often emphasized that women tend to farm more for subsistence while men tend to farm more for cash. This gender division of labour is an important aspect of social inequality and food insecurity. However, gender divisions of labour are neither fixed nor universal. Drawing upon qualitative research conducted in northern Ghana, this article examines assumptions underlying development policy and practice about the gender relations of farming and food. This study argues that gender norms in the case do not neatly align with the prevailing conceptions that have shaped interventions. Male smallholders described their primary farming objective as being to produce enough food to feed their family, while women smallholders tended to describe their farming largely in terms of cash generation. This article also considers some of the negative consequences of this misalignment between projects and gender norms. In particular, projects geared at female farmers to support their subsistence production risk adding to their household responsibilities. Support to women only also risks alienating men, potentially causing conflict around the use of project support because women are not autonomous agents. Women rely on and negotiate their labour, harvests and family landholdings, as well as that of others. This negotiation can be disrupted due to interventions and wider environmental and agrarian changes. In short, programs that differentiate support based on misconceptions of context specific gender relations can have unanticipated negative consequences. This study suggests these consequences can persist even in practice that rectifies the tendency of practice to exclude women. Ultimately, development practice should be context specific and consider how gendered agriculture and food relations may be changing.