Gender relations and aquaculture

technology adoption in Bangladesh:

Merging the social and the technical to

enable more secure livelihoods

Miranda Morgan and Afrina Choudhury

International Conference on Integrated Systems, 3-6 March

2015, IITA, Ibadan, Nigeria

Contents:

Women-targeted

technologies

Study findings that

substantiate the need

for Revised extension

approaches

Pilot of a revised

extension approach in

Faridpur, Bangladesh

Women

targeted

technologies

Targeting women in the homestead

Why women targeted? How?

CLOSE TO HOME FOR EASY ACCESS (time and labor burden,

mobility and access constraints)

MORE CONTROL OVER HOMESTEAD ASSETS

INCOME OPPORTUNITY FROM AN UNDERUTILISED

RESOURCE (without hindering other usage)

ENHANCED RESILIENCE through DIVERSIFIED food and

income options

NUTRITIONAL consumption enabled through small fish

Selection based on interest and close proximity resources

Technical knowledge transfer through short duration

trainings

Coaching

Demonstration set up for practical learning and scale out

Linkage events

The homestead system

• Optimal utilization of homestead space with diversified production

options

• Focus on nutritional food options and income

• Complex system that serves multiple purposes and are interrelated

• A common view emerging from the gender and aquaculture

literature is that small-scale aquaculture is suitable for women

because ‘it is largely a homestead-based activity that integrates well

with prevailing cultural norms’ (Jahan et al, 2010: 492).

• Marriage and family are the “the boundaries within which women’s

lives are ordained” (World Bank, 2008, p. 12), with the composition

and structure of women’s conjugal family (e.g. nuclear or extended)

correlated with women’s access to health care, opportunities for

work, mobility, ability to act on nutrition information, and involvement

in wider household decision-making (HKI, 2011)

Recently

conducted

study

examines

this

Introduction to research study

Rationale:

Research on agriculture and aquaculture technologies focuses on

testing and refining them to increase output.

Need to understand how the social and gender relations in a local

context shape how women and men adopt, use and adapt these

technologies.

Such knowledge will help to design more appropriate technologies

and dissemination strategies that lead to independent uptake,

sustained use and equitable development outcomes

Research question:

How do gender relations shape the uptake and use of aquaculture

technologies?

Research Sites and methodology

Khulna district Barisal district Total

Bohalia Jalapara Sarendra

pur

Lakripur

Innovation (cage

or pond)

Cage Pond Cage Cage and

Pond

Project (CSISA-

BD or AIN)

CSISA-

BD

AIN CSISA-

BD

CSISA-

BD

Primary religious

background

Hindu Muslim Muslim Muslim

FGDs 6 10 6 10 32

In-depth

interviews

25 15 19 30 89

Total 31 25 25 40 121

The results summarized focus primarily on ‘innovation adopters’

(n=67; 42 women and 25 men).

Study findings: Technology users are

embedded in a range of relationships

WorldFish project staff, officers and

contact people

Group of adopters

Household of adopter

Woman adopter

Relationships inside household

Want to involve or target women but this requires the whole

household to consent to attend training, provide inputs and

investment, provide labor time

Attending training can affect these relationships

-Affects the type of work women are perceived to be able

to do

“it’s easy, she [daughter-in-law] can do everything. Even if I

am not home for 10 days she can look after everything. She

is also sufficient alone in doing the agricultural work. She

doesn’t need me on many occasions.” (father-in-law of pond

demo farmer in Khulna)

Household of adopter

Woman adopter

-Affects how much work women do

One woman (pond adopter in Khulna in her 30’s with secondary

education):

“[Husbands say,] ‘you have learnt everything, fish farming

along with vegetable farming. We (husbands) don’t have to do

anything, you all can do’. Saying this, they leave it to us. Now

[because of] training I am in another hassle, now the

husband’s don’t do, we have to do.”

However, perceptions that women cannot do many of the

required tasks due to limitations in strength may enable men

to maintain control over technology use

Household of adopter

Woman adopter

Family members may not be pleased with women attending the

training because of :

- Social reasons

- Perceptions that it will interfere with women’s household work

- Perceptions around inappropriateness of new role

Woman in Barisal, in her 20’s, primary education –:

“My husband also doesn’t like all this. He also doesn’t like that I went to the

meeting. The woman should stay at home. Fish farming is done by the men… I

stopped farming fish. It was difficult for me to go the training. I have a small

child, I have household work … Again there are outside men at the training.

They see us … I didn’t go any more after those 3-4 days. I didn’t go anymore

because I have hassles here.” (from husband, in-laws).”

Household of adopter

Woman adopter

Household relationships can affect who controls the money and

benefits

One husband (in his 40’s), Khulna said: “it’s her money. I don’t have any

interest in that money. It is not my concern what she does with that money”.

However, for others in Barisal, many of the women and their husbands said

it was mainly the men who made decisions about the money. One man said

“even if the money stays in their hands, we are the ones who spend

it…they don’t spend anything. They bring the money .”

Household of adopter

Woman adopter

Relationships among group

Both benefits and drawbacks from a group

Strong relationships help to foster technology use and

benefit, especially for women

“If I’m away, [my wife] can call our neighbours, like my

brother’s wife. That is why this project was kept jointly”

(male respondent, Barisal)

“we decided together that we will all release some fish

in a pond and breed them there for some time and then

from there we will give fish to everyone” (woman

respondent, Khulna)

Group of adopters

Household of adopter

Woman adopter

Lack of trust and certain power dynamics can affect the

potential for pooling resources and sharing knowledge

“When doing it together, someone does more. The person’s

house that the food is in, he gives food on two extra days. The

person who doesn’t have the food in his house, he doesn’t

remember, he stays busy in other work. And if each one is on his

own, they will remember about the work, that, the work of looking

after the fish has to be done first. Otherwise one sits in

expectation of the other.” (Women respondent, Barisal, in her

20’s, primary education)

Lack of trust makes it difficult to make decisions – especially

financial decisions – at the group level. Particularly around how

much to re-invest and how much to spend on personal

expenses.

Problems in inclusiveness and knowledge sharing

“They don’t even come close to us. That isn’t the fault of World Fish. They taught

them, if there is anyone among you more knowledgeable, you can also let them

know, the experience will increase. But they don’t listen to much. They don’t

come…. Will they give value to my words? Everyone eats their own rice. I

also don’t go to say anything to them. They also don’t come near me.” (woman

demo farmer, 40s, Barisal)

Must be aware of social sensitivities – why would other women not want

to learn from her?

Group of adopters

Household of adopter

Woman adopter

Inequalities within the community can

lead to problems within households

“If anyone fails in any paper in an exam then how does the heart feel and this

fish that [the demonstration farmer] got, how does her heart feel and us who

didn’t get the fish, how do our hearts feel?...my husband also says, you go

swaying to the meeting and come back swaying, only Anwar fisherman’s wife got

the fish…” (Woman respondent, Barisal)

“My husband prohibited me from going to the [next] meeting. ‘You have been

going to the meeting for so many days but they don’t give you anything’.

That is why the husband says it’s bad or forbids me” (Woman respondent,

Khulna)

Another woman from the same village said: “my husband doesn’t help me with

my work anymore … my husband says they don’t give you anything in your

meeting”

Relationships outside

Village

Trade-offs

- Between testing the feasibility of a new AQ technology and

decreasing poverty.

One woman in Barisal said the poor who really could have

benefitted from getting some kind of input :

“Those who can afford to release fish worth 1000/2000 taka,

they were given fish and those who do not have the ability to

release fish, they weren’t given fish. That’s why i say that the

poor constantly have bear kicks….our space is small that is

why we didn’t get fish”

WorldFish project staff, officers and

contact people

Group

Household

Woman adopter

Relationships outside village

Managing expectations

Facilitating independent use: What processes? What

technologies? What additional skills?

Do some technologies lend better to being used without the

support of extension officers?

WorldFish project staff, officers and

contact people

Group

Household

Woman adopter

Revised

extension

approach in

Faridpur

“in a family, it isn’t enough if

one person is aware. If

[training] is given to everyone

in the family, then all the

members will be aware.

Benefits can come.” (woman

respondent, Barisal)

New aquaculture technology

dissemination approach

Technology extension package re-designed to combine technical

aquaculture training with gender consciousness raising

exercises from HKI’s Nurturing Connections manual.

Training is modularized to interact with different stages of

production cycle and address social issues that may arise as

result of applying new knowledge.

Changes in production and knowledge, attitudes and practices

(both technical and social) are being monitored among

participating women and their spouses through survey research

methods and process documentation

FGD

Training designed

Baseline designed and

conducted

Family members involved

No demonstration farmers

Smaller groups

Technical knowledge merged with social awareness

Training modularized over the entire production cycle

HKI

conducts

TOT

Sessions

initiated

Farmer perceptions

Because we belong to a five member small (learning) group who live

close to each other, we discuss with one another. Should we forget

anything we can remind each other. This helps us solve problems and

answer any questions that may arise. The trainer’s visits also help to

clear up any queries we have (woman SGD participant).

Because our husbands, father in laws, and mother in laws were

included in some sessions, it was easier to for them to understand what

we told them. They don't create any barriers to our participation

(woman SGD participant).

Since they (other family members) were included they heard it from the

masters themselves. They believe us now about the benefits of

investing (woman SGD participant).

There was an exercise with family members on distributing food and on how we

usually make sure they eat better before eating ourselves. So usually we don’t

have much on our plates. In the past, men didn't notice this. As long as they got

a big piece or the head, they were happy. Now, following this exercise men

check what we are eating. They acknowledge that we work hard all day and

make sacrifices and should eat equally (Consolidated comments across many

women SGD participants).

Our husband’s ask us before purchases more than before. It is because

husbands are aware of the benefits of asking their wife’s opinion and since we

women were able to learn a lot from the training (woman SGD participant)

Revising extension approaches

Aquaculture training is leading to enhanced status and

strengthened voice in intra household bargaining but…

Long lasting and deeply held beliefs around gender roles and

responsibilities can be challenged when women are involved in

activities which bring clear economic benefits to their

households, or which enable them to perform their culturally

ascribed roles more effectively

However the impacts of involving women can be temporary.

Women may not be able to secure long-standing, sustainable

change in their roles and responsibilities.

Farnworth et al, 2015

• Securing long-lasting change can only succeed if women and

men themselves take charge of, and feel they benefit as

individuals and as families from, changes in gender relations.

• Innovative methodologies for technology development and

dissemination need to focus on promoting farmer adaptive

capacity and enabling them to take charge of their own

learning, which is not a gender neutral process

• Working with development partners, value chain actors,

communities, families and individuals to remove gender-

based constraints to women's full participation in aquaculture

is essential.

Farnworth et al, 2015

Thank You