ACS10004 v4 AGRICULTURE GLOBAL PRACTICE THE FRUIT OF HER LABOR PROMOTING GENDER-EQUITABLE AGRIBUSINESS IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA FRESH PRODUCE SECTOR December 2014 THE FRUIT OF HER LABOR PROMOTING GENDER-EQUITABLE AGRIBUSINESS IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA FRESH PRODUCE SECTOR I. BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT The World Bank Group recently completed a study of gender issues in three agribusiness supply chains in Papua New Guinea (PNG), including fresh produce. It found women to be key to ensuring quality in agriculture. Therefore, it recommends that if PNG wants to bring better quality fresh produce to market, it needs to focus on the contribution of women; improving their skills and capacities and giving women a greater share of the benefits. Agriculture accounts for approximately one-third of GDP, and the sector is dominated by smallholders. The fresh produce industry has great potential in PNG. Market demand for fresh produce is likely to remain high in years to come, due largely to resource-led development, increased urbanization and a general rise in standards of living. Unlike coffee and cocoa, where the product is destined for export and the market is limited to a small number of exporters, markets for fresh produce in PNG are very diverse, and the supply chains are extremely varied. The key market segments for fresh produce include supermarkets, institutions, kai bars, distributors, and urban markets, all of which require different product attributes from their suppliers in terms of quality, quantity, shelf-life, and reliability of supply. This document summarizes the main findings and recommendations relating to the fresh produce sector from the joint World Bank-IFC report The Fruit of Her Labor: Promoting Gender-Equitable Agribusiness in Papua New Guinea. The report and sector summaries were prepared by consultants C. Mark Blackden (mblackden@ comcast.net) and Maxie Makambo Dominic (makambo020368@gmail.com), under the overall guidance of Anuja Utz (autz@worldbank.org) and Amy Luinstra (aluinstra@ifc.org). For the full report visit www.worldbank.org/png. Photos by Conor Ashleigh and World Bank The Fruit of Her Labor: Promoting Gender Equitable Agribusiness in Papua New Guinea - Fresh Produce Sector Summary 2 II. SUMMARY OF PRINCIPAL III. KEY ISSUES IN THE FRESH FINDINGS PRODUCE SECTOR The main findings of the analysis are: »» Women are key to quality. Women A) Quality play a central role in time-critical and Women dominate production and processing activities. quality-relevant tasks in production, harvesting, Quality is largely driven by product enhancement product enhancement and transport. (washing, sorting, grading, trimming, packing), which »» Labor dynamics affect outcomes in the begins on the farm once the produce is harvested. When sector. Much labor is allocated for “social” and how these tasks are undertaken has a bearing on the purposes and labor shortages exist, especially quality of the fresh produce that reaches the market, and at critical production/processing times. Labor on the extent of product loss and waste (losses have been constraints are especially apparent when the reported at between 30-50 percent for sweet potato, and gender division of labor is explicitly taken into 20 percent for fruit and vegetables in Port Moresby). account. »» Critical services are lacking. Provision of Several factors contribute to product loss and diminished services, including inputs, extension, training quality. These include: and finance is limited and poorly targeted. (a) women’s lack of knowledge of post-harvest Gender-specific tasks and needs are insufficiently management practices; integrated into the design and delivery of (b) inability to access, or to afford, recommended extension and training services. appropriate packaging materials for various crops; (c) lack of cool storage facilities at farms, markets, depots, and ports; (d) the use of inappropriate types of transport (including public motor vehicles−PMVs) on poor roads; and The Fruit of Her Labor: Promoting Gender Equitable Agribusiness in Papua New Guinea - Fresh Produce Sector Summary 3 (e) weak communications and poor alignment of key intersect in determining labor use. actors along the supply chain. »» Fresh produce farming in PNG is largely seen as an extension of subsistence Three inter-related issues affect women’s ability to activities. The economic potential of the fresh contribute to improving the quality of fresh produce. produce sectors in PNG is not perceived by These are: farmers, so much so that the feasibility study for »» Incentives: Women have more control over a Port Moresby wholesale market begins with a income in the fresh produce sector than in cocoa question: “Yu Tokim Mi Long Planim Kai kai Na or coffee. As one study notes: “though average Maket We”? -- You ask me to plant vegetables, returns to labor were found to be higher for coffee but where is the market? (Bonney et al. 2012). than in food production, women persevered with Decisions about what to cultivate, and what the heavy and less rewarding work of planting, labor to allocate to it, are made largely without harvesting, and carrying food crops because reference to market drivers, and linkages with the incentives were better. They exercised markets are weak. If farmers are to become more more personal control over production, could business-focused there need to be the business intentionally produce a surplus over subsistence opportunities and market linkages to support the requirements for sale, and were able to control change. and spend most of cash earned from selling food »» Much labor is allocated for social crops” (World Bank n.d.). purposes. Social factors and obligations, However, this essentially applies only in local including church and community work, are markets close to the homestead; when transport of at least as important as economic ones in crops to more distant markets (Lae, Port Moresby) determining labor use. Consequently, relationships is required men become involved and women, along the supply chain can be seen to have at in most instances, lose control over the resulting least as much to do with clan and culture as with income. product characteristics and market dynamics. »» Knowledge and Information: Women’s access to the knowledge and skills required to TABLE: LABOR ALLOCATION BY TASK AND carry out their tasks is extremely limited, as gaps SEX, 1993 (HOURS/WORKER/DAY) in education, literacy, skills, and participation in Task Male Female extension and training activities persist. Food 1.21 4.31 »» Socio-Cultural Dynamics: There are Coffee 0.67 0.96 important gender-specific dynamics at work in Household 0.41 2.69 PNG society that differentially affect men’s and Total 2.29 7.96 women’s capacity to exercise economic agency. Source: Overfield 1998. PNG society is largely patriarchal and, even in »» Farmers experience labor shortages. matrilineal regions, men are seen as household Households do not have enough labor to do all heads and primary decision-makers. the things they need to do, or to do the things at the right time and in the right way. Data from the 1990s indicate that the division of labor is B) Labor unequal: women work nearly 3.5 times as much as Labor issues have far-reaching implications for the men, especially when household work is included, performance of the sector. Of particular importance are on which women spend 6.5 times as much time as gender differences in labor allocation and in rewards to men do. labor, and the ways in which social and economic factors Women allocate more than 3.5 times as much labor to food production as men do (Table). Smallholder farmers are very diversified, The Fruit of Her Labor: Promoting Gender Equitable Agribusiness in Papua New Guinea - Fresh Produce Sector Summary 4 producing a range of fresh produce/food crops, D) Lack of mobility alongside their cash crops. Diversification makes sense, in that it is a risk management strategy, Being more restricted to the homestead and not having but it is also possible that some smallholder access to transport services means that women are farmers are trying to do too much with the limited largely excluded from key downstream activities along labor they have, further contributing to labor the supply chain. In fresh produce, marketing of “hardy” shortages, especially at peak seasonal times for crops (cabbage, sweet potato, carrots, English potato) particular crops. requires transport to Lae and Port Moresby; transport is provided by men, who then, the women say, pocket the money. This, alongside heavy workloads, persistent The women are forever busy, always busy. Women do insecurity, and cultural constraints, contributes to women gardening to provide food for the immediate family’s being confined to, and largely only able to benefit from, needs, women attend to commercial crops, and livestock, shorter supply chains in the fresh produce sector, where and other household chores such as cleaning clothes, produce is sold in local markets close to home. cooking food, and feeding the children. The only time women rest is when they are asleep. Beyond these sector issues, broader, systemic issues persist in PNG and affect sector performance. In −Male Tomato Farmer, Mt. Hagen. addition to the well-documented issues of poor or non-existent infrastructure, especially transport and C) Services communications, PNG suffers from pervasive insecurity and violence, including domestic violence, which In addition to the limited reach, and focus, of extension disproportionately affect women and their ability to services, other key services are often not available to operate as economic agents in the sector. Lack of smallholders. Input supply is weak and inconsistent. information, knowledge, communications and services The inability of smallholder farmers to access quality (including education and health) more generally, is a seeds on a regular basis is a major problem. There further systemic barrier to gender-equitable agribusiness. is limited access to financial services, and important gender-specific barriers persist, as women tend not to own the land, fixed assets, or other resources that are needed to meet collateral requirements. The Fruit of Her Labor: Promoting Gender Equitable Agribusiness in Papua New Guinea - Fresh Produce Sector Summary 5 »» Inputs: Improve the supply of agricultural IV. PRINCIPAL inputs (notably seeds, fertilizer, pesticides) in RECOMMENDATIONS FOR a manner that is consistent and incorporates STAKEHOLDERS IN THE the development of new varieties of key SECTOR products. Establish seed production, storage, and distribution facilities in the sector in key All stakeholders have a role to play in improving provincial and regional centers. Put in place outcomes for women in the sector. Key actions identified measures to enable the National Agricultural include: Research Institute (NARI) and the Fresh »» Incentives: Improve the capacity of women Produce Development Agency (FPDA) to work to benefit directly from income earned in the collaboratively with the private sector in both sector by facilitating direct payment systems, by identifying and meeting the needs of farmers aggregating production through cooperatives, for seeds and inputs that are appropriate and by supporting training and sensitization and accessible. Explore agribusiness dealer efforts (including through personal viability− approaches, which would bring retail outlets for PV−training) aimed at shifting cultural norms inputs closer to farmers. and mind-sets relating to women’s economic »» Infrastructure: Support establishment of cool contribution. storage facilities at key provincial and central »» Knowledge: Improve quality through better locations, which would be managed by a private training in production and processing techniques. sector company. This company would provide Re-focus extension and training messages toward key support services to farmers, and would be the quality-enhancing tasks for which women are responsible for managing the cool storage facilities responsible. Adopt a specific target (30-40 percent) and managing all transportation and distribution for female participation. Consider establishing requirements, thus enabling farmers to sell their quality protocols at each step of the supply chain, produce at the farm gate. This approach would outlining the critical steps (and who does them) have the additional advantage of considerably involved in maximizing quality. Ensure that shortening the supply chain, from the farmer’s these protocols are integrated into extension and perspective, thus enabling women farmers to reap training packages. Analyze labor dynamics in the direct benefits from their labor. sector, through commissioning time use surveys and research on the gender division of labor for key tasks, including domestic work and returns to labor. References Bonney Laurie, Mark Worinu, Pauline Muscat, 2012. Yu Tokim Mi Long Planim Kaikai Na Maket We? A feasibility Study for a New Wholesale Fresh Produce Market in Port Moresby, New Zealand Aid Programme, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, New Zealand. Overfield, Duncan, 1998. “An Investigation of the Household Economy: Coffee Production and Gender Relations in Papua New Guinea,” Journal of Development Studies 38 (5) 52-70. World Bank, n.d. Gender Issues in Smallholder Cocoa and Coffee Production, Productive Partnerships in Agriculture Project (mimeo). The Fruit of Her Labor: Promoting Gender-Equitable Agribusiness Development in Papua New Guinea, World Bank Group, Port Moresby and Sydney, 2014. The Fruit of Her Labor: Promoting Gender Equitable Agribusiness in Papua New Guinea - Fresh Produce Sector Summary 6