FIE copy The Impact of Technology Choice on Rural Women in Bangladesh Problems and Opportunities' Gloria L. Scott SWP73 1 Marilyn Carr WORLD BANK STAFF WORKING PAPERS Number 731 lE WORLD BANK STAFF WORKING PAPERS Number 731 The Impact of Technology Choice on Rural Women in Bangladesh Problems and Opportunities Gloria L. Scott Marilyn Carr The World Bank Washington, D.C., U.S.A. Copyright ©D 1985 The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/THE WORLD BANK 1818 H Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20433, U.S.A. All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America First printing June 1985 This is a working document published informally by the World Bank. To present the results of research with the least possible delay, the typescript has not been prepared in accordance with the procedures appropriate to formal printed texts, and the World Bank accepts no responsibility for errors. The publication is supplied at a token charge to defray part of the cost of manufacture and distribution. The World Bank does not accept responsibility for the views expressed herein, which are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the World Bank or to its affiliated organizations. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions are the results of research supported by the Bank; they do not necessarily represent official policy of the Bank. The designations employed, the presentation of material, and any maps used in this document are solely for the convenience of the reader and do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the World Bank or its affiliates concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city, area, or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its boundaries, or national affiliation. The most recent World Bank publications are described in the annual spring and fall lists; the continuing research program is described in the annual Abstracts of Current Studies. The latest edition of each is available free of charge from the Publications Sales Unit, Department T, The World Bank, 1818 H Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20433, U.S.A., or from the European Office of the Bank, 66 avenue d'lina, 75116 Paris, France. Gloria L. Scott is adviser on women in development at the World Bank; Marilyn Carr, with the Intermediate Technology Development Group (London), is a consultant to the Bank. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Scott, Gloria L. The impact of technology choice on rural women in Bangladesh. (World Bank staff working papers ; no. 731) Bibliography: p. 1. Rural women--Employment--Bangladesh. 2. Agricultural processing industries--Bangladesh-- Technological innovations. 3. Agricultural processing industry workers--Bangladesh--Supply and demand. I. Carr, Marilyn. II. Title. III. Series. HD6190.6.S36 1985 331.4'864'02095492 85-6505 ISBN 0-8213-0557-3 ABSTRACT Increasing poverty and landlessness in Bangladesh are compelling socio-economic change. Traditional social organization has confined women to the household sphere. Despite this constraint, women have made a substantial contribution to agricultural production, mainly through post-harvest and food processing activities within their households. This contribution is undervalued, if at all counted, because it is considered domestic labor. Modernization and the introduction of technology is displacing many of these opportunities, especially in rice processing. Many rural women need to work outside their households in order to survive, but the rural wage economy is not prepared for them. Part I provides background on the social, cultural, and economic issues relevant to the concern for increasing women's opportunities for employment and income generation in rural Bangladesh. It describes the full range of women's economic contribution and importance to the rural economy and to the consumption and welfare of their families. Some of the Government and nongovernmental programs to improve the status and skills of women in Bangladesh are described, and approaches are suggested for increasing income-earning opportunities. Part II discusses the capital and labor intensiveness of various crop-processing technologies and their impact on the employment of women. After direct crop production, post-harvest activities are the most significant source of rural employment for women, especially among landless and marginal families, those most affected by the loss of opportunity due to technological changes. The paper examines the extent, causes, and effects of technological changes in food processing (especially rice, oil seeds, and sugar) and small-scale and cottage industries (jute and silk). It suggests measures and an institutional framework to identify, develop, and disseminate appropriate technologies that would create employment opportunities, especially for women. Conclusions and recommendations are in Part III. ACRONYMS ADAB - Agricultural Development Agencies in Bangladesh BARD - Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development BIDS - Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies BJRI - Bangladesh Jute Research Institute BRRI - Bangladesh Rice Research Institute BRAC - Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee BSCIC - Bangladesh Small-Scale and Cottage Industries Corporation BSB - Bangladesh Shipla Bank CARE - Cooperative for American Relief Everywhere, Inc. GK - Gonashasthya Kendra IUCW - International Union of Child Welfare MCC - Mennonite Central Committee MIDAS - Micro Industries Development Assistance Society NFRHRD - National Foundation for Research on Human Resource Development NGO - Nongovernmental Organization OXFAM - Oxford Committee for Famine Relief RSS - Rural Social Service UNICEF - United Nations Children's Emergency Fund UNIDO - United Nations Industrial Development Organization Currency 1 Taka (Tk) - US$0.038 26 Taka (Tk) - US$1.00 Weights and Measures 1 crore - 10 million 1 seer - 0.93 Kg. 1 maund - 82.27 lbs. (37.3 Kg.) 1 ton = 27.22 maund (1,016 Kg.) Glossary Purdah - female seclusion Paddy - unhulled rice Chor - small clusters of extended family members'.dwellings Bari - groups of chor Para - neighborhood formed by groups of bari Upazilla -administrative unit under the jurisdiction of a police station (thana) normally covering 150-175 vilages and around 200,000 population. CONTENTS Page PART I: DATA BASE ON WOMEN A. Situation and Status of women 1 -- Socio-cultural Context for Rural Women 1 -- Health, Nutrition, and Fertility 7 -- Education 10 B. Women's Work 13 -- Crop Production 15 -- Animals 18 -- Other Work 19 -- Household Maintenance 20 -- Women in the Labor Force 21 C. Women and Change 26 D. Lessons of Project Experience and Proposals for Action 34 PART II: CROP PROCESSING A. Introduction 42 B. Demand for Labor in Rice Processing 45 -- Nature and Extent of Mechanization 45 -- Cause and Impact of Mechanized Milling 52 -- Factors in the Spread of Rural Hullers 52 -- Factors in the Spread of Automatic Rice Mills 56 -- Impact of Mechanization on Output and Employment 61 -- Other Rice Processing Operations 71 Page C. Technology and Employment in the Processing of Other Crops and Other Rural Activities 75 -- Processing of Crops Other Than Paddy 76 -- Jute 76 -- Wheat 78 -- Sugar Gur 79 -- Oilseeds 82 -- Sericulture and Ericulture 87 -- Fruits, Vegetables, and Nuts 89 -- Technology and Employment in Other Rural Activities 91 PART III: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Conclusions and Recommendations 94 A. Data Base 95 B. Current Employment Situation/Trends 97 C. Policy Implications 99 ANNEXES Annex I Characteristics of Dheki Vs Custom Mills 103 II Costs, Capacities, and Labor Requirements for Different Rice 104 Processing Operations Bibliography 105 SUMKARY Socio-economic Context The social and economic position of the nearly 39 million women (about 92% of the total female population) in the rural society of Bangladesh is weak. They bear a considerable work load, often working extremely long hours (17 per day), that involves productive activities, as well as household maintenance and reproduction. Since many of these activities are complementary to those of men, integrated within the family and homestead-based production unit, and performed in seclusion (in observance of purdah), they are not recognized as economic activities. Yet, female labor is critical to post-harvest food processing and has a great impact on total production in the agriculture sector. It is estimated that female labor accounts for at least 25 percent of value added in the production of rice, Bangladesh's staple grain. Women are equally significant in the post-harvest processing of jute, the second most important crop. Within the homestead, women also cultivate vegetables, spices, and oil seeds to supply additional nutrients to their families' predominantly rice diet. Among the landless or nearly landless, who comprise 52 percent of the country's population and 48 percent of its households, an increasing number of rural women require wage labor outside the confines of the homestead. Households headed by women are particularly disadvantaged, and the absence of working males in a household is a factor in its impoverishment. Even so, there are significant constraints to women's access to better nutrition, health services, and nonformal and formal education that would enhance their opportunities for wage labor. (The level of female literacy, for example, is only 14 percent, and maternal mortality accounts for 27 percent of deaths among women 10-49 years old.) Some women are able to earn income by making handicrafts, raising livestock, buying and processing paddy for sale as rice, and selling surplus vegetables at their households. The more common alternative is for women to seek work in the househo§ds of others, processing rice or doing household chores and menial tasks. Women also participate in the Government's various labor-intensive rural works programs. But, many women, however great their need, are unable to find work that provides for their families' subsistence, and, for all types of income-generating work, women find fewer work opportunities than men. Women earn more from field work than other types of wage work, but in terms of earnings and number of days worked, the best employment opportunities for women are in rice processing. Due to uncertainties and irregularity about terms and method of payment, it is difficult to compare male and female wage rates, although calculations indicate that the highest female wages are lower than the lowest male wages. However, when prices are rising rapidly, the real value of payment to women, who generally receive payment in kind plus meals, also increases. Government and NGO Programs In Bangladesh, as women's earnings become increasing more important for the survival of impoverished families, special income-generating programs for women are necessary. Female employment should not be considered separately from an overall employment strategy wherein women contribute to purchasing power and welfare of individual families. The Government, in recognition of this need, has initiated policies and programs for women, mainly from a welfare perspective. Its Second Five-Year Plan (1980-85) calls for programs aimed at the socio-economic emancipation and skill development of women (para. 8.46). The Ministry of Social Welfare and Women's Affairs is viewed as a catalytic agency in this process. Also, women's programs are run by a number of voluntary nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), which operate independently of each other and vary widely in their objectives. NGO experiences suggest that realistic approaches to expand the prospects for income-generating activities among rural women take into account the cultural constraints imposed on women, the capacities of illiterate women, and the limited market for their products and services. Successful NGO income-generating programs have focused on women of the same economic background and have enabled women to contribute savings to a fund from which credit is made available in small amounts without collateral. Literacy, numeracy, and nutrition training are important complements. Three types of activities, in combination, could be promoted to expand income opportunities for rural women: (a) loans for individual or group projects; (b) scaling-up of successful pilot projects; and (c) new approaches. Group investment has special merit, for it makes it possible for women to own or gain access to more productive technologies, such as pedal threshers, shallow tube wells, and back-pack rice hullers. Employment and Technology in Agroprocessing In FY81, the volume of employment generated in the crop processing subsector, dominated by rice (406 million man-days) but including jute, wheat, sugarcane, oil seeds, silk, fruits, and vegetables, was about 478 million man-days. The majority of work in crop processing is carried out by women, using traditional techniques that are low-cost and efficient in terms of use of capital, but characterized by very low labor productivities and returns to labor. The subsector is a crucial source of employment for landless and marginal families. However, since the 1960s, there has been a massive increase in the proportion of paddy that is milled (dehusked and polished) by capital-intensive techniques. An estimated 40 percent of output is currently milled in small rural or larger commercial mills. The major factors in diffusion of this capital-intensive technology are (a) cost reduction, basically by displacing hired labor, mainly landless women; and (b) a response to greater quantities of paddy coming onto the market, both privately and through government procurement schemes. Proposals for further subsectoral development are often framed in terms of large-scale processing plants that incur heavy foreign exchange costs and create scant employment. Only dehusking and polishing are being done outside the household, since the cost differential between the household (using a foot-operated mortar and pestle, the dheki) and the commercial mill is about 12:1. For other processes, the cost differential is less than 2:1. Even including the lower output of rice from mechanized steel hullers, transportation costs, and other hidden costs, it would still be profitable for a large number of farmers to switch from the dheki to the mill. In 1980/81, the amount of rice lost due to the use of steel hullers rather than the traditional dheki, was valued at more than Tk 746 million. With the establishment of some 10,000 steel hullers in rural areas, between 1.4 million and 2.0 million women have lost a traditional source of productive part-time employment. With 700 new mills being set up annually, another 100,000-140,000 women are being displaced each year. For landless women, the loss represents about 55 percent of annual income and 15 percent of family income. These displaced women, due to economic necessity, are also the most likely to go the the mill site to seek employment, but the number of jobs being created by the mills is about 20,000 permanent and 40,000 part-time positions. For those employed by the mills, the wages are not commensurate to the increase in productivity per worker. Employment Alternatives In the face of this substantial displacement of female workers, due to mechanization in rice processing, it is important to find alternative productive activities. With increased crop diversification in the agriculture sector, the processing of crops other than paddy represents a significant source of employment for landless women. As with rice processing, improved technologies will obviously play an important part in handling higher levels of agricultural output, but experience with rice processing suggests the low capacity utilization of large-scale plants for processing crops grown on scattered small holdings. The possibility of processing fruits, vegetables, and nuts with a view to import substitution and possible export is also largely unexplored to date and merits investigation. Identifying, developing, and disseminating appropriate technological options are just as important in other industries as in agroprocessing. If appropriate technology, with training and credit, were made available to rural women, productive ventures at the village-level would be stimulated. For landless women, the small-scale manufacture of a wide range of goods, provided this opportunity is not preempted by capital-intensive technology, could provide new opportunities for jobs. Potential products are agricultural tools and accessories; silk and silk by-products; building materials for housing and storage, and everyday goods, such as rope, soaps, pencils, and umbrellas. Beyond the support of Government policy, assistance in identifying investments, organizing production groups, and access to financial support and training are required. Recommendations In Bangladesh, the landless or functionally landless and households headed by women most need employment. Projects should aim at creating alternative employment by upgrading traditional technologies. Some 3.5 million-5.0 million man-days of employment need to be created annually to compensate for displacement due to mechanization, particularly in rice processing. Specific recommendations for the rice processing industry are: (a) Rural hullers should be neither encouraged nor discouraged, but improving their performance and converting them to renewable energy sources (rice husks) should be considered. Extending credit to women, enabling them to purchase and benefit from the hullers' mechanical efficiency as owner-operators should be encouraged; (b) further investment in large-scale automatic commercial mills with high foreign exchange costs cannot be recommended. Expected efficiencies in production have not been substantiated. Higher returns to investment can be expected from incremental improvement in the rural mills; and (c) efforts to increase the mechanical efficiency of the traditional dheki, so that the labor productivity of women would increase, should be explored. With increased agricultural production and crop diversification, possibilities for employment and capital formation in rural Bangladesh exist. To maximize the potential gains from forward and backward linkages in the production-marketing process, the choice of technology should be rationalized. Imported capital-intensive technology can be counter- productive, as the experience of large-scale rice mills in Bangladesh indicates, and similar mistakes should not be made in other industries. It is strongly recommended that Government adapt to local conditions and promote the use of small- and medium-scale technologies that are economically viable on a small scale decentralized basis, with maximum employment prospects and limited use of capital and scarce foreign exchange. WOMEN IN RURAL BANGLADESH: POLICIES FOR THEIR EMPLOYMENT AND OPPORTUNITIES IN CROP PROCESSING PART I: DATA BASE ON WOMEN A. Situation and Status of Women Socio-cultural Context for Rural Women 1. Many rural women in Bangladesh need to work in order to survive but the rural wage economy is not prepared for them. According to the Gov- ernment's 1981 Population Census, the total population is 89.9 million. The rural population numbers 80.4 million and of these, nearly 39 million women or 92 percent of the total female population live in rural areas (Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, 1981). Data from the Bangladesh 1976 Fertility Survey indicate that while the overall male:female ratio is 108:100, the ratio in urban areas rises to 129:100. Many men working in urban areas leave their families in rural areas. Bangladesh is a Muslim society and the Islamic ideal of female dependence, derived from a man's full responsibility to provide adequately for all the needs of the family he heads, prevails. Thus, it is unusual for the birth of a girl to be welcomed by the Islamic call to prayer as is the case of the birth of a boy, and as a girl grows, this lack of recognition is perpetuated. Girls are conditioned to accept inferior status and to feel that they are family liabilities, not assets like their brothers. "Care of a daughter is regarded as watering a neighbor's tree; you take all the trouble to nurture the plant, but the fruit goes to some one else" (Mahmuda Islam, - 2 - 1979, p. 245). Thus, when food supplies and other resources are scarce, the best goes to the son and what is left, to the daughter. Poorer nutrition among girls is reflected in mortality rates up to 50 percent higher for girls under five years old, than those for boys. This is true not only among the poor, but across all socio-economic classes. 2. The socially acceptable role for a woman is that of wife and mother, and from childhood, girls are trained for this role. At present, the legal age of marriage for girls is 16 years, but this restriction is largely ignored, and village girls are usually married at puberty, and by age 17, 96 percent of females are or have been married. One consequence of rural poverty is that poor nutrition, delaying as it does the start of menstruation, may be contributing to a rising trend in mean female age at marriage, which has been noted in the 1978 Bangladesh Fertility Survey. The average age differential between a woman and her husband is nine years. Because of age difference (not higher male mortality), widows outnumber widowers in every age group. Widowed men frequently remarry younger women. Widowed women seldom are able to remarry, and they and their children often suffer economically and socially. Only women with grown-up working sons have any hope of security upon a husband's death. 3. The society is patriarchal, patrilineal, and patrilocal. After marriage a girl moves to her husband's household, and as she is transferred to her husband's family, her own kin identity is changed from father to husband. In the first few years of marriage, strict seclusion is usually enforced. Often the household comprises an extended family, and the young bride is expected to show deference and obedience, not only to her husband, but also to his mother. The newest wife in a household has the most inferior status, a situation that can change only if she bears sons. As long as the distribution of land remains uneven and economic welfare is so closely related to land ownership, those with little or no land need sons to work to make up for it. The household and child-rearing are controlled by the mother-in-law. 4. A significant economic problem for families with daughters is the cost of the bridal dowry required in most marriages, and brides tend to be valued in relation to the amount of dowry they bring to their husband's family. Many peasants are forced to sell or mortgage their land to pay the dowry and with increased economic hardship, parents often renege on their promise, causing great hardship to the bride who may be abused consequently. It is customary for the husband to promise to give the bride an agreed sum of money (or goods) as part of the marriage contract. When the agreement is not honored, seldom is the bride in a secure enough position to claim it. Further, the payment often is made to her father. Thus, a new bride is totally dependent on her husband and his family. 5. Many of the social prescriptions on women are rooted in and are reinforced by the institution of purdah. Maintaining that sexual desire and aggression are ever present and difficult to control, purdah is meant to institutionalize restraint through social controls, by limiting contacts between men and women and by creating social space for women (Papanek, 1973, pp. 289-325). - 4 - 6. Most discussions about the situation of women in Bangladesh note that status and prestige are the critical variables in any aspiration to change, and that "The social ideology of status, set by the powerful, controls the behavior of almost all women in the village. If one is seeking to extend resources to poor women to enable them to improve their economic condition, one must understand how the ideology of status limits the ways in which they can afford to respond when new opportunities are offered" (Abdullah and Zeidenstein, 1979, pp. 344-5). 7. Traditionally, the work done by the women in a family indicates its status. Relative idleness and freedom from menial work by women, separation from men for all their activities, and strict observance of purdah are symbols of high status, and thus reflect a family's influence and power. Purdah is both an economic asset and a liability, and is costly to maintain. Most rural women practice purdah in a manner that strives to emmulate the ideal, yet allows for the economic realities of the family situation. Restrictions of purdah tend to be relaxed among the very poor out of econmic necessity or among the less poor when the trade-off is economically advantageous. Almost all village women aspire to purdah and the families in villages that can maintain it are highly regarded by all. They control village values. Only economically secure families can afford to support such behavior. Social status is not necessarily equated with economic position, although the two often coincide. Low-status families that are well-off seek to marry a son to a daughter from a higher-status family. "Status is a viable socio-economic asset in that it is a basis for making good marriage alliances that will sustain or improve a family's position and for main- taining power, influence and control over resources"(Abdullah and Zeidenstein, 1979, pp. 344-5). -5- 8. Many women in economic need will hide their deprivation, rather than lower their status (and that of their children) by violating purdah and doing work usually associated with lower-status women. Some do such work in secret and earn some money without violating purdah. Their dependence on others, because of limited mobility, exposes them to exploitation by their families and middlemen. 9. Economic class in Bangladesh is usually defined in reference to ownership or control over land, and usually four classes are distinguish- ed. Large landowners--the top 6-7 percent of rural households owning 45 percent of all cultivable land, with an average farm size of 5 acres; 15 percent of rural households cultivating farms of 2-5 acres, owning 25-30 percent of the land; small farmers--30 percent of rural households owning 20 percent of the land; and the lowest group--the landless or near landless who, according to the Bangladesh 1977 Land Occupancy Survey, represents 48 percent of all rural households with 52 percent of the population. Of of all households, 33 percent own homestead land but no cultivable land, and 15 percent claim ownership or some land other than a homestead but no more than 0.5 acre. Thus, they are functionally landless and depend on wage employment for their livelihood. It is among the landless families that women are most pressured to earn income. With a population that is increasing rapidly, an already high population density (1,975 persons per square mile), the number of landless households will continue to increase. 10. Under Muslim law, a woman has the right to inherit a share (half that of a brother) of her father's property. A married woman with children inherits one-eighth of her husband's property. These rights, however, are -6- seldom exercised, or if they are, the benefit is shortlived. Since as a rule women do not do agricultural field work, a widow must depend on a male to cultivate land, and this dependence puts her in a weak bargaining position. The absence of male labor is a factor contributing to the low income of households headed by females. Widows frequently lease out their land at terms unfavorable to them, and often below their normal share- cropping rates. They are prey to unscrupulous and powerful villagers who find pretexts to gain control of their land. Further, a woman often does not take her share of her fathers' land since doing so would reduce the share for her brother, from whom she expects protection in the male environment. Rather she prefers not to put at a risk her relations with him and his support to her. 11. Within a village, there are three tiers of household groupings which define women's mobility. The smallest is the group of huts around a courtyard. In the courtyard, paddy is dried, chickens and small household animals are kept, and cooking and other domestic activities take place. This settlement is called a chor and the residents are close relatives, members of a patrilineal family: father, mother, sons and their wives and unmarried children. Groups of chor form a bari, and several bari form a neighborhood or para, several of which comprise a village. Up to the para level, frequently, residents are related through the males, and this is the boundary for women's mobility. Women can move within the courtyard, or the bari, and can visit from one bari to another, moving along sheltered paths keeping out of sight of males, and they can do this most freely at times when men are in the fields. During the monsoon, the bari often are cut off from each other, and while men can move around by boat or on foot, this is -7- not appropriate for women. Thus, women are isolated and have to depend on men, children, older women whose seclusion is not a status requirement, or a male servant for information, securing services, or selling their products outside the para and beyond the village. Health, Nutrition, and Fertility 12. The general inferior station of women also affects their health and has implications for their productivity. Their own health needs and access to health care are subordinate to their status and are dictated by their husbands and more important family members. Maternal mortality accounts for some 27 percent of deaths of females aged 10-49 years. The highest rates are related to first pregnancies due to childbearing at a relatively immature age, to a series of five or more pregnancies (related to the pressure to bear sons), and to infection from repeated childbearing under unhygienic conditions compounded by malnutrition. Severe maternal malnutrition also limits neonatal immunity and predisposes infants to contracting communicable diseases. Nine percent of newborns die in their first month, and twelve percent by the twelfth month. It is estimated that more than five percent of the population suffers from protein calorie malnutrition, which is most severe among young children and childbearing women. A high incidence of other infectious diseases is attributable to inadequate sanitation, contaminated water and serious overcrowding, and two-thirds of the child population suffers from intestinal parasites, which further aggravates malnutrition. 13. Nutrition studies establish that pregnant and lactating women are seriously deficient in protein, calories, vitamins A and C, and iron. - 8 - Rural women breast-feed up to two to three years, frequently with very little supplementary food. In addition to normal requirements, a full-term pregnancy and lactation require, respectively, about 300 and 800 additional calories per day. While prolonged lactation tends to depress fertility, which is favorable in Bangladesh's situation of high population growth and fertility rates (2.36 percent per annum, and 6.2 respectively, 1981), it is deleterious to the health both of the child and mother. 14. At health and medical centers, females represent 30 percent of users, males 48 percent, and children 22 percent. At family planning centers, female attendance is 65 percent, while that of males falls to 28 percent. Because the majority of doctors nationwide and at the centers are male, many men refuse to let their wives be attended by them and many women avoid them. There is great reliance on traditional health practitioners, and modern doctors are seen only in extremis, often when it is too late, and modern medicine is then judged as ineffective. Illegal abortions are performed by traditional practitioners, and one study estimates 7.7 maternal deaths per 1,000 live births were due to abortion. Data checked for 663 rural health clinics showed 1,590 cases of complications from abortions treated, of which 31 percent had died (Shamima Islam, 1981, p. 13). 15. As a whole, the population is poorly informed on basic health care practices and nutrition. The shortage of food is compounded by a lack of knowledge of nutritional requirements, the content of available food supplies, or ways of using food for maximum dietary efficiency. Despite experience in helping to care for younger siblings, young mothers know little about basic child care. - 9 - 16. The 1981 Population Census shows an annual population growth rate of 2.36 percent for the period 1974-81. In 1980, the total fertility rate (the average number of children born to a woman who survives through- out her reproductive period) had declined to 6.2, compared with 6.7 for 1974-81. For a large segment of the life of a woman in Bangladesh, she is either pregnant or nursing, on average, having 11-12 pregnancies resulting in five to six surviving children. Bangladesh has one of the highest dependency ratios in the world. In 1980, 31 percent of the population was under 10 years of age and another 12 percent between 10 and 14 years of age. Forty-four percent of all males and 42 percent of females were under 15. With such a young population, each year higher numbers of females enter the reproductive age. Thus, even if by 1985 the net reproduction rate could be controlled at one (i.e., each generation of mothers having only enough daughters to replace themselves), the population would still grow to 117 million by the end of the century. 17. The Government, through foreign assistance projects, including those financed with IDA credits, has been making serious efforts to introduce family planning and control population growth. The challenges posed by the sociocultural context described earlier to the success of family planning programs should be obvious. Fertility remains highest among the agricultural population, except among the landless laborers who have the lowest fertility, partly due to their very poor nutrition. 18. Family planning methods that are being advocated are directed to women. Some 14,000 family planning workers, 48 percent of the employees in the Population Divison of the Ministry of Population and Family Planning, - 10 - are women. There are, however, very few women at the highest levels of plan- ning or administration. Education 19. It is generally accepted that in addition to its inherent value, education of girls has wide ramifications for a country's economic and social progress. Literacy rates in Bangladesh are low, and lowest among rural women over 25 years old. Only 14 percent of Bangladeshi women are literate, compared to 29 percent of men. Of the few village girls who go to school, most drop out at the fifth or sixth grade, at puberty. Since a minimum of five years of schooling and some follow-up is necessary to maintain literacy, there are many villages in Bangladesh where not a single woman is literate. Apart from the requirement to observe purdah from the onset of menses, many parents consider that what girls have learned by that age is adequate for their future life. Studies of several communities have found that there is a positive correlation between the amount of land owned, the level of family income, and parent's educational level and the enrollment of their children in school. 20. Especially among landless families, children cannot enroll in school, even when their parents would favor schooling, because the children's labor is essential for the family economy. Where resources are limited, investment in girls, who are expected to marry and leave the family, is regarded as a waste of resources, and fewer girls are likely to go to school. Even though schooling is free, the opportunity costs to parents are high. Apparently, the most significant deterrent to educating girls is the need for their services in large families. From - 11 - age 5 onward, girls are required to help their mothers with household chores and mind siblings, and progressively, they must take on more productive tasks. By the time they are about 10 years old, they are husking grain or other such work. 21. Only in the mosque schools, where they are taught mainly religion, do girls predominate over boys. In these pre-primary age groups students are taught mainly religion. At the mosque school, the teacher is the male religious leader. There are also female religious instructors who teach girls and boys in their homes. Many poor families "aspire to this form of education for their girls, which raises their status in the marriage market, but does not increase the potential cost of marriage which to their perception is enhanced by the formal education" (Shamima Islam, 1979a, p. 94). 22. The more education a girl has, the higher will be the dowry her family must pay to get a suitable husband. If a family fails to pay all the dowry, the girl is returned to her family and becomes a burden. In the absence of suitable marriage offers for daughters, a family may prefer the expense of keeping daughters in school beyond the fifth grade to the social stigma of having unmarried daughters. 23. The Government of Bangladesh has been making efforts to increase female school enrollment, especially at the primary level. Its first Five- Year Plan, 1973-78, set a target of 55 percent enrollment for girls, com- pared to 90 percent for boys. Also, the Second Five-Year Plan, 1980-85, set ambitious targets for reducing illiteracy through nonformal education - 12 - programs as part of integrated income-generating and of integrated develop- ment programs. Its targets include setting up community schools and learn- ing centers, and free school uniforms (making of which would provide considerable employment for rural women) for some 5 million girls. 24. Girls represent 40 percent of the enrollment at primary level (1983). Given these low enrollment rates and the high drop-out of girls at this level, an extremely small proportion of girls is educated at secondary and tertiary levels, respectively 20 and 16 percent of enrollment. Most of the facilities for secondary and higher education are in urban areas. As secondary education is not free, those enrolled are mainly daughters of the more affluent. Girls have fewer curricular options than boys, and few girls' schools offer science, and none offers agriculture or industrial arts. "While the country's development Plans focus on the need for thousands of female middle-level workers with certificates of matriculation, the course offerings are not planned in a way as to enable schools to produce girls who can be absorbed in these positions as soon as they come out of school" (Shamima Islam, 1979a, p.111). Limited education, of course, affects the availability of nurses, nutritionists, paramedics, health visitors, and agricultural extension workers. It also affects the numbers available to be trained as teachers, without whom it will be difficult to make advances in providing primary education for girls. Having more female teachers (only 8 percent of - 13 - teachers are female) has had a positive influence on female participation in the labor force. 25. The number of females studying at higher levels doubled from 1963 to 1973, but in 1983 still represented only 16 percent of enrollment. While boys can contribute from their earnings to the costs of education, girls, because cultural norms limit their opportunities to earn income, must depend on their parents. Lack of residential accommodation for female students is a further disadvantage. Most of the females in universities come from urban families, and a trend of increasing enrollment of married females has been noted at Dhaka University. 26. Nonformal education programs for women are relatively new, and apart from a few pilot efforts set up to reach rural women, most are located in urban areas. These programs usually provide literacy and/or skill training, and few specifically aim at improving the level of knowledge and competence of rural women in the context of their daily lives. B. Women's Work 27. Despite official statistics that indicate that only 12 percent of Bangladeshi women are "economically active", various studies on rural women's work in Bangladesh document that most females in Bangladesh over ten years old work hard for long hours and that less than half their effort is on "housework". In economically viable households, even at subsistence level, women sometimes work 17 hours per day, while men work 11 hours. - 14 - Women often start work at 4:30 a.m. and finish between 8:00 and 9:00 p.m. and their normal work load increases dramatically at harvest time (UNICEF, 1977). 28. Studies in three villages of what production activities women actually perform, rather than according to labor force definitions, showed that 40 percent of rural females over 10 years old were active. Thirty percent of these women engage in productive activities within the household. TJnless they are too poor to afford segregation, they opt for productive work that can be done in segregated surroundings (Rizwanul Islam, 1979). They perform the usual female domestic, family reproduction, and maintenance activities, the economic value of which has not been measured. They also contribute significantly to both agricultural and nonagricultural production, but since many of the activities performed are complementary to those of men, integrated within the family and homestead- based production unit and performed in seclusion, they are not recognized as economic activities. Certainly, among the landless and families with small holdings, horticulture and the entire post-harvest food processing, preservation, and related processes are performed by women. These activities have a great impact on the total production of the agriculture sector. To demonstrate the importance of work done by women, time allocation studies cited by Begum and Greeley compare an area where 47 percent of families own land and 40 percent of household income was earned by women with an area where 76 percent of families own land and women contribute only 20 percent of household income (Begum and Greeley, 1980a). In the Comilla area village women spent 43 percent of their time on work related to agricultural production, - 15 - 29. While the villages of Bangladesh are not homogeneous and women's work varies by region and its agricultural base and further by class and status considerations, an attempt will be made to generalize the types of tasks that the division of labor accords to women, drawing information from microstudies of various areas of Bangladesh. These studies, which did not all use a similar methodology, indicate the substantial economic contribu- tion that women are making and suggest the need for a better accounting of that contribution in the labor force. In view of the interdependence between male and female work, there is need for a redefinition of "work" to include what women do. Crop Production 30. Rice is the staple grain in Bangladesh and 60-80 percent of the annual harvest is produced for home consumption. The field work is done by men, and the tasks that are done after cutting and prior to consumption, that is those done at the homestead, are done by women. Also, by cooking one or two meals daily for hired labor, women contribute significantly to laborers' wages. Each meal may take two hours to prepare, in addition to the time previously spent husking and pounding the rice used for the meal. Women help to select and they dry and store the rice to be used as seeds and prepare them for sowing. Given the importance of rice to the family's economy, this task is critical and requires repeated attention from the women. It has been estimated that women's labor accounts for at least 25 percent of the value added from sowing onward in the production process of rice. Except in the case of automatic rice mills, used mainly for the government stockpile, mills only do husking and require women's input for - 16 - the pre- and post-husking tasks. Since these tasks are done at the mill site, away from the household, only women who are not status-bound do them. 31. Most rice husking is still done by family labor, including some reciprocal labor and a small proportion by hired women. It has been estimated that if only 10 percent of the total rice production were husked by hired women, it would produce 18 million man-daysl/ of employment. About one month of employment for the poorest 5 percent of rural women would result (Greeley, 1981). 32. The sequence of rice-processing activities done by women are: preparing the courtyard on which the paddy is dried by plastering it with a fresh layer of mud and dung, helping with threshing to separate the grains from the stalk, drying stalks to be used as cattle feed, winnowing and sifting several times, parboiling and soaking, drying (often repeated processes of spreading and sweeping), husking (if it is not sent to the mill), winnowing to separate the bran from the chaff, and storage, including periodic redrying. Grains that are not properly dried break in husking or milling and spoil in storage, so women's judgment on its moisture content before and during storage is critical, as is proper preparation of the storage containers. Parboiled rice retains more nutrients when husked and stores better and, again, women's judgment is important. A courtyard's size limits the amount of rice that can be dried at any one time, and if small, adds to women's work load. Women may 1/ The term man-days is used throughout to denote both male and female employment. - 17 - actually perform different processes on several lots of rice simultaneous- ly. It has been noted that rice dries two to three times faster on paved roadways than in a courtyard, and this technique is becoming popular. High-yielding varieties of rice take longer to dry because their husks are thicker and they yield larger amounts for processing. Also, women fetch fuel for the fire and the water for parboiling and soaking. The contribu- tion of this effort is, however, seldom considered, since gathering fuel and fetching water are regarded as part of women's domestic responsibil- ities. Women also contribute much of the labor to the post-harvest processing of wheat and other food grains that are less important than rice in Bangladesh. 33. Women are involved in the post-harvest processing of jute, the second major crop in Bangladesh. After cutting, the stalks are allowed to rot in water, then the stripping of the jute fiber from the stalks is done by both men and women, as is the drying and storing of the fiber. Jute stalks are used for fencing, which is also done by men and women. The making of jute rope and other articles from jute fibers is done by women 2/ 34. Most families have homestead plots, and even on those that are extremely small, they try to grow some other crops such as vegetables, 2/ The Bangladesh Jute Research Institute is developing a machine to strip the fibers from the stalk. BJRI shows photographs of its extension agents demonstrating the prototype only to men, although surveys show clearly that this is a female task. - 18 - spices, and oil seeds to supplement their rice diet. This cultivation is done entirely by women who prepare the land, sometimes digging and transporting earth with which to level the land or make the beds. They plant seeds, tend the plants, and bring water for them. Women with access to irrigation water work the pumps at night. They use ashes as insecticide and manure as fertilizer, if it can be spared from fuel requirements. Fencing the plots is their responsibility, and they pick, process, and preserve the crop. They sell or trade any surplus, usually through males. Women also plant fruit trees and process and preserve the fruit. As with rice, women are responsible for selecting and storing the seeds for most crops. During the monsoon, the homestead gardens provide essential nutrition, but unfortunately, half of such production is derived from three vegetables (radishes, eggplant, and bottle gourd) with little nutritious value. Women's work fluctuates with major crop cycles; the two heaviest demands on them coinciding with the two rice harvests. In Bangladesh there are basically two crop seasons, the monsoon season (June-September) and the winter season (October-February), with a dry summer period for March-May. During slack periods, women work on repairing storage facilities, preserving food, making oil, flour and flour products, and puffed or flattened rice. Animals 35. Care of all animals is the responsibility of women. Bullocks are, after land, a farmer's most valuable asset. Women maintain them, collecting fodder to feed them three times a day, taking care of their health, seeing that they are bathed, securing them at night. Women clean - 19 - their stalls and store the manure to use as fuel and fertilizer. For cows, they do the same and also milk them to provide milk for the household and for sale. Women raise goats which are kept in a shed with the bullocks or in the house. If possible, a child grazes them; if not, women feed them leaves. Women use and sell goat's milk and also sell the goats. More women are also raising chickens, and one study noted that "a small family with no additional income can live on the profits of a poultry farm of 150 birds" (Shireen Rahman, 1977, p. 3). Ducks are raised, but they require more care, especially to keep them from eating the rice crop. Chickens and ducks and their eggs are also a source of cash. Not infrequently animals are raised on a share-cropping basis. Other Work 36. Nothing is wasted, and all agricultural and kitchen residues have their use: rice husks and stalks and dung are used for fuel; straw, bran, and peelings are fed to cattle, and food scraps to chickens and ducks; water used to wash rice and pulses is fed to cattle or used to water plants; banana leaves are used when rice must be covered temporarily; ashes from stoves are used for washing and as fertilizer and insecticide; leaves and stalks are used to make nets for hanging, baskets for winnowing, drying nets, fish traps, and brooms; threads from worn-out saris are used to make quilts for bedding. Women also make mud stoves for cooking. Women in the families of potters do some of the work in pitching and drying pots; and those in the families of weavers do a share of the weaving. In these and other such activities performed traditionally by families, women have clearly demarcated tasks, which they perform as unpaid labor and in - 20 - conjunction with their household responsibilities. Many traditional implements for the household are made by women. 37. It is clear that all of these tasks require both skill and judgment. However, the earnings of women, e.g., from the sale of surplus vegetables, chickens, or baskets, are diluted because of women's dependence on men to market them. Because of isolation, women have little information about market values and accept what is offered to them. As often is the case with women's income-earning activities, marketing is poorly arranged, and in Bangladesh, women are further disadvantaged by their seclusion. 38. It is clear, too, that these activities of women receive very little attention in government programs. Given the low status and the constraints which the culture accords women, they have not been in a position to make claims on the system for services to upgrade their skills and increase their productivity. This perpetuates their low status. The lack of information about women furthermore impedes efforts to develop such programs. Women's lack of access to information limits their participa- tion, even when programs exist. Household Maintenance 39. Women in Bangladesh do the child care, cooking, and cleaning activities typical of women in the developing world. Women aged 15-64 years spend some six hours per day on household maintenance, compared with 50 minutes for men. Firewood is very scarce and much time and energy are required to collect fuel, including dung which women dry and store for - 21 - burning. A 1980 energy survey showed that dung and jute sticks represented 35 percent and 50 percent, respectively, of domestic fuel, and that 80 percent of crop residues were so used. The Energy Sector review, 1984, shows that 60 percent of total energy used in Bangladesh is supplied from traditional sources, crop residues, and animal wastes, but end-use efficiency is low--10-15 percent. In Bangladesh, women also repair their houses, which men construct. The monsoon rains often damage them and they have to be replastered. Customarily large family size and extended demands of breast feeding must be factored into the work required of rural women. Women in the Labor Force 40. An increasing number of rural women require wage labor, because their families are either below or at subsistence level. Also increasing is the number of such households that are headed by women. Estimates of de jure female-headed households (households headed by widowed or unmarried women) range from 6.4 percent to 16 percent of rural households. The number of defacto female-headed households will range higher. Many of these rural women are landless and are seeking wage employment in a labor market that has, to date, restricted female access (Chen, 198i, pp. 6-7). The poorest households depend on wage employment for a living and are found to mDbilize their entire workforce, regardless of sex, to ensure bare subsistence. A survey (March-June 1979) of 238 households whose women worked as wage laborers showed that 64 percent were still married; 87 percent had a daily laborer as husband; 69 percent owned no crop land; and 36 percent had 4-6 living children. And 62 percent of them gave insufficient income as the reason for starting to work; other reasons were - 22 - a husband's illness or death or divorce (Begum and Greeley, 1979). As shown by the following table, the proportion of women entering the labor market varies inversely with level of household income: Female Participation in the Labor Market in Rural Bangladesh by Income Groups Monthly income Percentage of active Percentage of households (Taka) females entering having female income the labor market earners Below 50 16.66 12.50 50 - 100 38.09 26.66 100 - 150 18.18 22.22 150 - 200 18.58 25.00 200 - 250 2.66 4.87 250 - 300 3.84 6.38 300 - 400 13.59 20.33 400 - 500 1.15 2.08 500 - 750 2.54 6.25 750 - 1000 1.25 2.85 1500 - 2000 3.70 9.09 2000 and above 4.76 7.69 Note: * Includes active females aged 10 years and above. Source: National Foundation for Research on Human Resource Development, Benchmark Survey 1977-78. 41. Some women are able to earn income through work that does not seriously compromise their status, that is, by income-generating activities such as making handicrafts for sale, raising livestock, buying and processing paddy for sale as rice, and selling surplus vegetables and cooked articles at their households. The majority, however, must break purdah to find wage labor. The most common activity is to work in the households of others, processing rice or doing household chores and menial tasks, including taking meals to field laborers. Women also work as agricultural laborers. A survey in the Comilla Upazilla found that female - 23 - laborers were employed on farms larger than 1.5 acres and the number increased with farm size. Only 23 percent of land holding families had never engaged women for payment (Martius von Harder, 1975, p. 74). 42. In rural areas, there are very few nonagricultural employment opportunities available to women. One is the spinning and weaving of silk which is being encouraged as a cottage industry. Information from one silk factory indicates a 6:5 ratio of male to female workers. A survey of rural industries sponsored by the Bangladesh Small Scale and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC) in 11 Upazilla, showed 34.5 percent of 217,000 workers to be women; however, women were paid less than the men (Salahaudin, 1982). Since the early 1970s, the Government has operated various labor- intensive rural work programs. Workers in some of these employment schemes receive cash wages, in others they receive food as payment. Women partici- pate in the food-for-work programs (FFW). Many of the FFW projects involve activities such as canal and pond digging, road building, rehabilitation of derelict tanks and earthworks which can be done only in the drier months (January to May), and so they are a very temporary source of income. When men have done the amount of work to qualify for their payment, they can go elsewhere and work as agricultural laborers. For women, this is not possible, in part, because there are fewer opportunities, and also, because they must do their household maintenance work as well. Ninety percent of the families of women working on FFW projects are landless, and the need for food for their families is their reason for working. Many spend 3-4 hours per day travelling to and from projects, and nearly one-quarter bring children to the work site, because they have no other child care. Half of the women working on FFW projects had work experience in rice processing, - 24 - including the mechanical rice mills. The majority of families, conscious of the women's contribution to the family's welfare, endorsed their efforts (Marum, 1981). 43. In some cases, family and social criticism is so persistent that women, trapped between the contradicting and conflicting demands of social status and economic desperation, are persuaded to give up work on the projects (and the income they earn). 44. Conversely, however great their need, many women are unable to find work that provides sufficiently for their families' subsistence. One study shows that female heads of households find wage labor for 17 percent of total man-days, compared to 41 percent for male heads of households. For all types of income-generating work, women find work for 63 percent of man-days and men for 83 percent (Cain, Khanam and Naha, 1979). Not only do women have fewer opportunities to work for wages than men, but for each task they also earn appreciably less than men. In the Comilla area, women earned a maxi*um of 1.4 kg. of rice as two meals a day, plus Tk 2--compared with a male wage of Tk 8-10 daily. Wage rates are higher during the harvest periods than at other times, and seasonal variations in wages are higher for women than for men. In some areas, opportunities for urban factory employment have attracted rural males away from the land, leaving women to do field work at Tk 8 per day, compared to Tk 20 per day for men. Women earn more from field work than from other types of wage work, but in terms of earnings and numbers of days worked, the best employment opportun- ities for rural women are in rice processing. "During non-processing - 25 - periods, employment is even more irregular and earnings decline to one meal for a half-day's work, and two meals for a full day's work, with no in-kind payment of rice" (McCarthy, 1980, p. 6). 45. There is much uncertainty and irregularity about the terms and methods of payment to women which makes it difficult to compare male and female rates. Calculations converting in-kind wages to a cash equivalent give a mean daily wage of Tk 4.27 for women and Tk 6.63 for men, and show that the highest female wages are lower than the lowest male wage (Rizwanul Islam, 1979). Among, the few advantages in the wage system for women is that in a period of rapidly rising prices, the real value of payment in kind plus meals--which women generally receive--increases. 46. Women's access to information is limited by their seclusion, and on FFW projects, for example, it was found that the rates paid to women varied (to their disadvantage) frequently, because they did not know the market rates, nor could they measure the amount of work they had done and so compute their correct earnings. On one project, a simple innovation--a pole marked with appropriate work lengths--gave the women an easy check (Marum, 1981). - 26 - 47. Because of deteriorating socio-economic conditions in rural areas, unemployment will increase during the next plan period and technological changes, such as the increased introduction of rice mills, may displace many women without generating additional employment. A survey of mill use (July 1980) revealed "that 73 percent of the farmers who have now started to use the rice mill were employers of female wage labor and since these users accounted for 66 percent of all employers of female wage labor, there will be a massive reduction in female wage labor demand" (Begum and Greeley, 1980a, p. 14). C. Women and Change 48. The social and economic position of women in the rural society of Bangladesh is weak, and they bear a considerable work load in productive activities, as well as in household maintenance and reproduction. The households headed by women are particularly disadvantaged and the absence of working males in a household is a factor in its impoverishment. There are constraints to the access of women to education and health services and women have limited opportunities for nonformal education and wage labor. Women and others who are poor are often unable to talke advantage of programs, even those targeted at them. In the rural works program, their poverty prevents them from owning or renting the necessary tools. Women's domestic work load and efforts to earn income leave little time for other activities. - 27 - 49. There is increasing destabilization of the economy at the local level evidenced by "more wage-based rather that independent forms of production, increasing indebtedness, land fragmentation, and growing insecurity and impoverishment. At the family level, problems are similar; changing social relations among family members, new demands on people's time, changes in decision-making among family members, increasing dependence on the wage labor of the husband and wife as well as children ... and a general erosion of once relatively stable living conditions" (Feldman, 1982, p. 2). 50. The Second Five-Year Plan (1980-85) recognized women and youth as the most disadvantaged element of the population for whom it would provide "programs aiming at their socio-economic emancipation and skill development for effective participation in nation-building." The objectives included generation of employment opportunities, particularly for women (Second Five-Year Plan, 1980-85, para. 8.46). Among the steps taken by the Government were the earmarking of 10 percent of all employment in Government and para-statal organizations for the appointment of women and establishment of a National Women's Association. A Women's Ministry created in 1978 was merged with the Ministry of Social Welfare to become the Ministry of Social Welfare and Women's Affairs. - 28 - 51. The Government has established or sponsored several organizations that bane programs for women. Also women's programs are run by a number of voluntary nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) required to register with various ministries and government departments. These programs operate independently of each other and vary widely in their primary objectives. Most share the common purpose of organizing women and raising their social status. Many emphasize training and income-generating activities. Several inventories of these programs have been made, giving various estimates of their number. A 1981 inventory by UNICEF lists 326 registered organiza- tions, for which information was available on 214 of them. About 13 percent of these organizations were sponsored by the Government, less than 2 percent by international organizations, and the remainder was privately sponsored. They were concentrated unevenly thoughout the country, with most, 99, in Dhaka. 52. In general, Government has initiated policies and programs for women from a welfare perspective. Thus, few of these programs address the real needs of women, and further they reach relatively few of those in need. "The larger part of planning for women having been done by men, and for rural women having been done by urban based male bureaucracies, have suffered the heavy load of unrealism" (Ahmad and Mahtab, 1978, p. 172). Few Government programs offered training for agriculture and livestock, and a particularly neglected area is agricultural extension. The extension - 29 - service with more than 16,000 village extension workers, "overlooks the key role rural women play in the economy. This may be ascribed to deeply rooted beliefs .... towards women's participation in economic activities" (Shamima Islam, 1978, pp. 129-30). In general, programs for women make inadequate provision for training, and for the selection of the most critical fields for training. Pretominant attention has been given to fertility control in conjunction with income generation, based on the understanding that raising women's status might contribute to reducing the birth rate in Bangladesh. 53. Village studies show that "... rural women employed in paid work cause significant changes in the socio-economic living pattern of the village" (Ahmad, 1980, p. 60). In recognizing that women's income is essential to maintaining or improving the family's standard of living, males and other family members are changing their opinions on women's status. Women themselves are able to buy things for their children and see them better fed and consider their own status improved. In 1978, when the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) started in one village to organize production groups of women (they started with house to house visits through their medical programs), "the women were at first not able to leave their homes on their own. When they formed their group, local religious leaders opposed, threatening to expel the women from society. The threat, however, could not be carried out, said field workers, as other women in the village supported the group. It was with the help of this - 30 - women's group that a 12-member men's group was later formed" (Fuller, 1980, p. 22). The women's group used the economic support from BRAC for paddy husking, and the men's group organized cooperative paddy cultivation. 54. Experience has shown that the most economically disadvantaged groups respond slowly to programs that do not offer possibilities for generating income. Because of their illiteracy, lower standing in the social hierarchy, inadequate access to institutional services such as credit, and their perception about their income earning potential, these groups--the small farmers, landless laborers, and share croppers--have benefitted little from various rural development programs (Hye, 1981, p. 27). 55. Among the socioeconomic schemes inducing change by providing opportunities for increasing family income are those of the International Union of Child Welfare (IUCW) and the Rural Social Service (RSS). For the poorest families in selected villages, these schemes provided training and financial and technical assistance to help them set up income-generating activities; other activities included functional education and family planning. Most of the women were trained in handicraft production. A 1981 evaluation noted that 35 percent of those involved were women and in addition to economic benefits to the villages and individual families, social awareness developed among village women, and there was less dependence on the family head and greater participation in the community. - 31 - Families were spending some of their increased earnings on educating their children and more children of both sexes over 10 years were enrolled in school than the national average (Alauddin and Sorcar, 1981). 56. One objective of an evaluation of the women's development program of the Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development (BARD) was to identify problems faced by women participating in development activities. In keeping with the guiding principles of the Academy the program encouraged self-reliance, cooperation, and group pressure as important forces for production and to protect the rural poor from exploitation. Problems identified included: the preference of educated village women for wage- earning jobs outside the village created a leadership vacuum among women in villages; women's involvement in project activities required female mobil- ity which men resisted; two types of cooperative societies were operating, joint and women's, and in the former, women were being deprived of their benefits and unable to withdraw their savings; women accumulated savings in the cooperative societies slowly and needed interim financial and other assistance to initiate projects; and the lack of support for women in the existing social and power structure in the village created barriers for women (Qadir, 1980). - 32 - 57. In 1982, OXFAM evaluated the experience of the Saptagram Nari Swanirvar Parishad, an NGO working with poor women in three regions of Bangladesh and whose income-generating activities were utilized both for group formation and for raising women's consciousness. It was found that the relationship between the groups and the project workers, who were alternately functioning as organizers and money lenders, bore too close a resemblance to the rural elite of the area who indulge in money lending and usury; most of the members benefitting from the program's training in tailoring and embroidery were middle-class women; and the spinners trained under the sericulture project were without work because growers failed to supply the raw materials. The literacy program was particularly valued by the women, because due to their inability to read and write, women said that they were previously cheated by others and were not in a position to encourage their children to acquire literacy skills. 58. Among the agencies offering women nontraditional training are: (a) UNICEF, which has trained women as bank workers and for pump maintenance; (b) CARE, which has trained women to vaccinate poultry; and (c) Gonashasthya Kendra (GK), which includes women in wood and mechanical workshop training. While the numbers are small, GK trains both girls and boys 15-20 years old, with at least a fifth grade education. They are trained to make metal and wood articles for local use and also in shoemaking, and receive a monthly allowance, out of which they pay for food and boarding while training and the costs of continuing formal education. They also work on the center's farm which provides the bulk of its food. - 33 - However, the usefulness of such training is limited because of the inability of graduates to acquire the tools and necessary machinery for productive employment. On the positive side, the trained females are considered desirable marriage partners, and this reflects an important social change. 59. Raising poultry has become very popular for generating income among village women, but is a very risky endeavor because birds often contract diseases and die, a loss which the poor cannot afford. To help in solving the problem, the CARE Women's Program selected older, poor, married women, who showed an interest, and trained them to vaccinate poultry as a way of earning income. They do immunizations twice monthly, covering 250-350 birds each time in some 90 villages. Literacy is not a basis for selection, and record keeping has been made very simple. The program is run in conjunction with CARE's poultry farm which supplies improved breeds of birds to the women and has had very good results. Its main difficulty is ensuting the supply of vaccine which must be refrigerated. CARE's head office in Dhaka receives supplies from the Government livestock service, and CARE extension workers transport the vaccine to villages in insulated flasks, and from there the "village vet" carries these vaccines in banana stalks. 60. UNICEF introduced a successful scheme to train women to maintain water pumps being installed in Bangladesh. Even though women often have the greatest incentive to ensure that pumps are in working order, they are rarely taught how to operate, maintain, and repair them. The pumps were - 34 - originally intended to provide domestic water, but are now being used widely for irrigation, although they are not efficient for that purpose, and require a substantial amount of energy to draw water. Many groups among the poor, including women, are borrowing money under affordable credit schemes to purchase pumps in order to sell water. Maintenance demands will increase, and the UNICEF project may have opened new earning opportunities for rural women in maintenance and selling water. UNICEF has also assisted a rural banking project under which female bank workers are being trained to offer door-to-door banking services to rural women, thus providing banking facilities to them for the first time. D. Lessons of Project Experience and Proposals for Action 61. It would be impossible to discuss in detail the multitude of women's projects being conducted by the numerous NGOs in Bangladesh. Some have succeeded in meeting objectives, some have failed, and still others have only been able to function because of heavy external support, a high staffing ratio, and the commitment of the program organizer. Although numerous, these programs have reached a relatively small proportion of the disadvantaged population. However, their experiences suggest features that would be important for programs developed to expand the scope of opportun- ities for income-generating employment among rural women (Alauddin, 1982). A realistic approach takes into account the cultural constraints, the capacities of illiterate women, and the limited markets for their services and products. It appears that the more successful programs have assisted women to work in groups from the same economic class and to contribute - 35 - savings to a fund from which they can borrow and have credit available in small amounts without collateral. To take account of the women's limited mobility and extreme poverty, programs have usually been organized in keeping with the women's capacities; in addition to skill development, the programs have provided literacy, numeracy, and health and nutrition train- ing. Some of the women's programs were integrated into rural development projects, and many untraditional activities for earning income were encouraged among women. 62. To be successful in reaching rural women, projects must be based on "an awareness that particular manifestations of rural women's behaviour, such as ... desired number of children, food consumption patterns, education of daughters, are responses to their total socio-economic situation. Project approaches based on a partial view are not likely to succeed ... women like men act out of self-interest ... seeking to the best of their abilities, in society as it exists, to satisfy their needs .... However, we must recognize that the cultural or socio-economic pressures experienced by women as a sex (varying with, but not negated by class) as they pursue security and survival are different from those facing men" (Abdullah and Zeidenstein, 1979). 63. Regarding program content, education and training are imperatives. What women do currently demands considerable skill and judgment (e.g., in rice drying), but these activities are traditional, characterized by low productivity, thus low earnings. Many income- generating activities being fostered build on these skills or require other - 36 - relatively low-level skills, for which a woman's educational level is not significant. To gain command of information and awareness that are prerequisites for women to take advantage of new opportunities, more efforts in nonformal education must be made to reach women, especially younger adult women, who were by-passed by the formal system. The pre- and in-service training of trainers merits attention so that they become resource persons in the teaching-learning situation. "Teachers working together with the women they train help them to understand their own needs, and reach their own solutions" (Shamima Islam, 1979b). Also important is gearing the content of programs to women's roles, responsibilities, and functions, and ensuring functional links between the training and skills developed with concrete benefits to the participants in satisfying their needs. 64. Three types of activities together could be promoted to provide income opportunities for rural women: (a) loans for individual or group projects; (b) scaling-up of successful projects; and (c) new approaches. (a) With small individual loans, women can achieve little more than raising a few poultry or goats, developing small trade in preserves, puffed rice, or rice cakes, or hoarding paddy, rice, and mustard seed to sell when prices rise. Low risk, quick return, and familiarity make the paddy-rice business a very popular investment. Several of the NGO programs that made credit available to women claim great success in increasing income and a very low level of default. Women as a group can make large investments in such activities as weaving fish nets for sale or - 37 - rent, fish farming in ponds, or cultivating leased land. Group investment also makes it possible for women to own more productive technologies, e.g., the custom-operated pedal thresher, shallow tube well, and back-pack huller (Begum and Greeley, 1980b, p. 11). Groups of landless women in Chittagong are taking loans for purchasing hand pumps and getting seeds from UNICEF for vegetable gardens. The profitability and repayment experience of these ventures has been positive. At present, there is little risk of the women's efforts competing with each other, but as programs expand, competition could become a problem. Any new activity should be based on economic cost and return estimates, rather than relying on the support or enthusiasm of the project officer. (b) Small numbers of women are employed for wages in the labor-inten- sive rural works program mentioned previously, in small-scale and cottage industries promoted by the Bangladesh Small-Scale and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC), and in various jute handicraft training and production centers run by NGOs. Some programs could be expanded or replicated. There is, however, the ever-present problem of marketing. Jute is very dependent on an external fashion market, and the market for silk is also extern- ally oriented. For products produced for local consumption, the market is extremely small because of poverty (GNP per capita of US$120 in 1981). One of the more successful local ventures is dessicated coconut produced by the Mennonite Central Committee - 38 - (MCC), and a search for other products that could be competitive on the local market might be rewarding. (c) Finding new avenues of employment is not easy since numerous schemes (usually directed to men) have been tried in Bangladesh. Suggestions for new outlets for female wage labor have in common that they would be for the local market, run and managed by women, and would employ women. They might include manufacture of pottery such as clay stoves, jars, irrigation pipes and tiles; also products that women make for local consumption, such as flat rice, could be commercialized. For landless women, beekeeping for honey, using low-cost hives, and expansion of silkworm- rearing have been suggested. 65. As noted, rural women really have no "spare time." To earn income and be able to take training, they can find time either by placing greater household burdens on their children, who in the poorest households are already doing a lot so that mothers can gain wage employment, or by working on tasks which can be done conjointly with household work, and these are likely to be very low-productivity activities. 66. The development of simple and inexpensive improvements in household technologies (e.g., more efficient stoves) could remove some of the drudgery and release time from household work, and their manufacture by local artisans would also provide employment opportunities. Another benefit from these improvements would be less demand for the labor of children, especially girls, enabling them to go to school which would yield - 39 - long-term benefits to the society. And further, fertility is likely to decline as the economic value of children diminishes. 67. Combined with efforts to advance household technology and the productivity of food processing with relatively simple and inexpensive improvements, efforts should be made to improve dietary practices. The least effort has been expended on nutritional education among the poor who can least afford waste. The nutritional quality of the limited quantities of food available to the poor could be improved. This could be an aspect of a two-part program to encourage production and consumption of vitamin- rich foods, and also better preventive health. Women would be the primary targets for such a program, since they have the main responsibility for health and nutrition in the family. However, it is important that men and also children in the primary school system be involved. 68. The project experiences suggest that, when directed at poor women, poverty-focused programs do not benefit the poorest, especially when women of different economic classes are grouped together. The less needy and more economically powerful usually take advantage of the resources being made available, except where programs require a self-help component requiring public labor. "By emphasizing self-help, specifically the active labor inputs of the members themselves, a 'self-selection' mechanism has worked on a number of occasions to remove richer and therefore more status-conscious women ... where the group made a decision to dig a pond or work on land they leased-in, the less poor members left the group for reasons of prestige" (Begum and Greeley, 1980a, p. 17). - 40 - Self-help has encouraged more careful use of the fruits of the group members' own labor as well as group cohesiveness. Efforts should be made to encourage some programs organized specifically for groups of the poorest women, to be based on self-help and collective activity. The programs of BRAC3/ and Grameen Bank,4/ which also included use of group members' savings for a risk fund from which individuals could borrow, have been useful pilot experiences suitable for replication. 69. Although in recent years a great deal has been written about women in Bangladesh, much of the hard data required for policy and planning are not available. "The lack of accurate and extensive data on the range of rural women's productive activities hampers a clear evaluation of their present employment situation, and more importantly, hampers an overall understanding of employment demands related to crop processing, storage, seed selection and preservation" (McCarthy, 1980, p. 3). It is clear that women's work adds economic value; it also saves expenditure, and this too is not counted. Better documentation and valuation of this work is needed, as is information on working conditions and productivity, seasonality, and earnings. The number of women seeking wage labor will increase with the rising cost of living and growing landlessness and impoverishment in rural areas, but better data on the likely patterns of increase and regional characteristics are needed for targeting programs. Therefore, efforts should be made in future censuses and relevant surveys to include such 3/ Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee, an NGO set up in 1972 as a small relief agency, is now the premier NGO engaged in extensive rural development activities. 4/ Grameen Bank, financed by the Bangladesh Bank, functions independently as an NGO on the principle that access to financial resources is the principal constraint to self-employment for millions of poor people. - 41 - information on women. In view of the importance of the agriculture sector for rural employment opportunities, the women's section of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forests has a unique role in collecting information. 70. The Ministry of Social Welfare and Women's Affairs has an important function as a catalyst for focusing attention on the situation of rural women in Bangladesh. Among its priorities, it might attempt to institutionalize a specific reference to women in a review of the employment implications of Government policy and programs. It is important that this review be in the early stages of policy formulation and planning. It is also important that this ministry participate in discussions related to external assistance in order to ensure that implications for women are taken into account in designing projects. The Ministry should also disseminate information about women; a start might be made by synthesizing the existing literature on women in Bangladesh and drawing policy and program implications from it. Further, the Ministry should promote better coordination among programs to avoid overlap and duplication, and also assist in identifying the most appropriate NGO programs for scaling up and replication to meet the needs that the Government with its own resources is unlikely to satisfy. 71. As an example of a specific program intervention that the Ministry could undertake, it might encourage in the rural works and food- for-work programs special provisions for female workers, such as separate work sites, employment of child care attendants, schemes enabling women to acquire tools, female representation on project implementation committees, and protection of their rights as workers. "The employment of female labor - 42 - is as yet not easily acceptable to recruiting officials, and perhaps would need promotional support being placed under government recruitment quota orders" (Ahmad, 1980, p. 383). It is often assumed that in economies with high unemployment, priority should be given to providing employment for men in order to secure subsistence for a family. In the case of the rural poor in Bangladesh, the earnings of women are often critical to a family's survival. Thus, special income-generating programs for women are necessary. The issue of women's employment should not be considered in isolation, however. Rather, it should be regarded as part of a total employment strategy where women contribute to overall purchasing power and to the welfare of individual families. 72. The introduction of 700 rice mills in Bangladesh each year dis- places 3.6-5 million man-days of employment for landless females, a very serious issue. A discussion of possibilites for creating employment opportunities for women through the introduction of appropriate technologies in agro-processing follows. PART II: CROP PROCESSING A. Introduction 73. Crop-processing activities are the biggest source of rural employment in Bangladesh. Recent studies estimate that the labor in rice processing represents at least 25 percent of labor in rice production and - 43 - that in jute production approximately 35 percent of man-days involved are used in processing activities (Greeley, 1981). Thus, in FY81, the volume of employment generated in processing these two major crops is estimated at 406 million man-days for rice5/ and 52 million man-days for jute.6/ The volume of rural employment created through the processing of other crops, such as wheat, sugarcane, oil seeds, silk, fruits and vegetables, is lower but still significant (wheat processing 3.3-4.0 million man-days; gur (sugar cane) production 3.5 million man-days; oil pressing 3.3-5.4 million man-days; and silk 3-4 million man-days.7/ 74. Several characteristics of the crop-processing sub-sector in Bangladesh need to be highlighted. First, the majority of the work is carried out by women: indeed, crop processing (which can be carried out within the homestead) is one of the few opportunities for productive employment open to rural women in Bangladesh. Second, the sub-sector provides a valuable source of employment and income for landless and marginal families whose members earn a significant proportion of household income through working as casual laborers for farmers with surplus crops or through processing crops purchased from the market. Third, crop processing is still predominantly carried out using traditional techniques which, although low-cost and efficient in their use of capital, are also 5/ Based on acreage of 25 million acres at 65 man-days per acre. 6/ Based on acreage of 1.4 million acres at 105 man-days per acre. 7/ Wheat estimate based on acreage of 1.0 million acres at 20 man-hours per acre (6 hours per day) for threshing plus nominal employment for milling; sugar estimate based on 63,665 persons employed and 55 days of employment per worker per year. Bangladesh Institute of Develop- ment Studies (BIDS), 1981. - 44 - characterized by very low labor productivities and low returns to labor.8/ Fourth, when new technologies have been introduced successfully, the major factor in diffusion appears to be cost reduction rather than reduction of food loss; and since the cost saved is that of labor, there has inevitably been a significant displacement of hired (landless) workers, especially women. Fifth, although larger quantities of surplus crops coming onto the market in recent years have focused more attention on this previously neglected sub-sector, proposals for its development increasingly are framed in terms of the introduction of large-scale processing plants that involve heavy foreign exchange costs and create little new employment either directly or indirectly through the local manufacture of processing equipment. 75. The Second Five-Year Plan (1980-85) estimates that employment in crop processing will increase in proportion to growth of 3.2 percent per annum in agricultural output. The trends noted above suggest that this assumption is probably unrealistic and given the actual and potential 8/ Estimates for capital and labor productivities and cost per workplace in various crop processing activities using traditional techniques, and in grain milling using an improved moderately capital-intensive technology are as follows: Output/ Output/ Capital/ Capital Ratio Labor Ratio Labor Ratio Oil Milling 2.57 1.70 993 Sugar gur 2.69 2.86 609 Juice gur 5.46 1.13 110 Dheki 8.48 1.14 133 Grain Milling 1.18 5.83 12,698 Output/capital ratio = value added per taka of capital. Output/labor ratio = value added per labor hour. Capital/labor ratio = taka capital cost per workplace. - 45 - importance of crop processing in terms of providing employment for landle-ss women, the following sections attempt to examine the extent to which the rational and appropriate choice of technologies and their diffusion to landless women can help them and their families to contribute to and benefit from the development process. B. Demand for Labor in Rice Processing Nature and Extent of Mechanization 76. After paddy harvesting, the sequence of operations necessary to convert it into rice is: field stacking, transportation, farmyard stacking, threshing, winnowing, drying, dehusking, polishing, and storage. When carried out with traditional techniques, these operations place a heavy burden on farm family labor (especially women who perform all operations from threshing onwards) and create a high demand for casual female labor, especially for threshing, dehusking, and polishing. 77. Increases in production due to changes in cropping patterns and the introduction of high-yielding varieties have led to increased pressure upon post-harvest facilities. The impact on the demand for farm family and hired labor has, in turn, been affected by the extent to which increased paddy yields have been sold in unprocessed form and more mechanized tech- niques are used. If output can no longer be processed by family members with existing techniques, alternatives, separately or in combination must be pursued: more labor must be hired, more paddy sold in unprocessed form, or the productivity of family labor must be increased through capital inputs. - 46 - 78. Of the post-harvest operations, only dehusking and polishing have been mechanized significantly. Until the late 1960s, these operations (the most time-consuming of all post-harvest activities) were undertaken almost entirely at the farm level, using manual techniques, the most common of which is the dheki (a foot-operated mortar and pestle).9/ Since then, there has been a massive increase in the proportion of paddy milled (dehusked and polished) by more capital-intensive techniques, with an estimated 40 percent of output now being milled in small rural or larger commercial mills. The rate and extent of mechanization of milling is shown in Table 2. Table 2: Rate of Mechanization of Milling, 1967-1980 1967 1977 1981 Percentage of crop husked in rural mills 17 20-25 25-30 Number of rural mills 6,500 7,600 10,493 Percentage of crop husked in commercial mills - 5-10 10 Number of commercial mills: - 80 320 of which fully automatic - 1 15 semi-automatic - n.a. 5 Compiled from the Ministry of Agriculture, 1978, and Bangladesh Shipla Bank, 1982. 9/ About 2 pounds of paddy can be placed in the mortar at one time. Generally, rice is processed in three passes through the dheki with separation of husk and bran after each pass. The by-product separated from the first pass is mainly husk. That from the second pass is a mix of husk and bran and that from the third pass is mainly bran. In some cases where hulling is done by a different method, the dheki is used for polishing only. - 47 - 79. The most commonly used rural mill is the steel (Engleberg) huller, using either electric motors or diesel engines (15-25 HP). These use mainly a single pass, but double-pass hulling is also practiced. In most cases, the rice, bran and husk must be winnowed and separated later by women. Facilities for soaking and parboiling are sometimes offered. The mills are normally owned by small entrepreneurs and primarily perform custom services for neighboring farmers and small traders. Consignments of paddy vary between 5 seers (4.67 kg.) and 4 maunds (149.60 kg.) with the average being 0.25-0.50 maund (9.33-18.66 kg.).10/ 80. Commercial mills are primarily "non-modernized" and use batteries of four or five steel hullers milling with single or double passes. These are driven by flat belts from a line shaft powered by steam engines (using husk as fuel) or by diesel or electric motors. These mills also offer soaking and parboiling facilities (the latter sometimes using steam generated from a simple boiler). Female labor is hired to carry out drying, pre-cleaning and winnowing operations using scaled-up traditional techniques. Mill owners may operate a wholesale business and/or may work on contract to the Ministry of Food milling paddy procured by the Government. Customers are normally bulking traders and most of the rice processed is aimed at urban markets. 81. Also, in the commercial sector are a number of modern integrated mills using rubber roll hullers and offering a full range of services. Pre-milling operations (pre-cleaning, soaking, parboiling, drying) are 10/ 1 seer - 0.93 kg. 1 maund s 37.33 kg. - 48 - handled automatically and rice, bran, and husk are produced already separated. There are also a few semi-automated mills that differ only in their use of sundrying rather than mechanical drying. Since these processing plants are imported in entirety, foreign exchange costs are high, being typically 30-50 percent of total capital investment. All equipment, including dryers, are run by electricity. Since batches of 1,000 maunds of paddy are typically required for economic efficiency, the Government is the mills' main customer, since this amount of paddy is beyond the means of most private traders. Owners of these mills are private companies, cooperatives, or Government. 82. The capacity and capital costs of mills vary enormously. Rural hullers present especially difficult estimation problems, since their capacity varies from 15 maunds to over 35 maunds per hour, depending on their size. Capital costs of rural mills also vary according to the size and type of structure in which they are housed, ranging from a bamboo and thatch hut costing Tk 1,000 to a brick and corrugated iron building costing Tk 40,000 (Ministry of Agriculture, 1978). A general estimate of the capital cost and capacity of the various types of mills and of the dheki is presented in Table 3. Estimates of the number of employees and the capital cost per workplace are also given. - 49 - Table 3: Husking Technologies: Capital Costs, Capacity, Employment Cost per Capacity Capital Costs Employment Work Hour (maund/hr) (Tk) (persons) (Tk) Dheki 0.16 600 2-3 (women) 200-300 Rural Mill 20.00 67,000 5-6 (men and 11,000-13,500 women) Modern Auto- matic Mill 55.00 7,500,000 30 (men) 250,000 Compiled from estimates given in the Ministry of Agriculture's Task Force Report, 1978; Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) Rural Industries Studies Project, 1981; Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) Annual Report, 1981. Other characteristics of Dheki and Rural Mill are given in Annex I. 83. Annual capacities for mills are worked out of the basis of a 250-day working year at 8 hours per day.1l/ On this basis, installed capacity in 1981 was just over 10 million tons of rice per annum, of which approximately 9 million tons were accounted for by rural hullers and the remainder by commercial mills. Given earlier estimates of 40 percent of production being husked in mills, a high degree of under-utilization of installed capacity (40 percent of production in 1980-1981 was slightly more than 8 million tons) is indicated. 11/ This is what is known as "efficient" capacity and takes into account factors in the productive environment such as the seasonality of agro-processing. Engineering capacity, which is often used in prefeasibilty studies, is based on a 300-day working year at 20 hours per day. It is generally accepted that this is an unrealistic estimate and that, in any case, the level of operating and maintenance costs rises sharply as it is approached. Most prefeasibility studies for modern rice mills in Bangladesh seem to be worked out on the basis of a 300-day working year at 16 hours per day. - 50 - 84. Available evidence supports the fact that mills are not used to full capacity. In the case of rural mills, this shortfall can be partly explained by the pauses necessary between the small consignments of customers. Double hulling also lowers capacity and this practice is necessary with some varieties of paddy (especially HYVs). Old machines and poor management have also been cited as reasons for low capacity utilization. More recently, power failures and competition from newly established mills have been given as explanations. In 1977, the average capacity utilization of rural rice mills was estimated at 57 percent, but is estimated to have declined since (Ministry of Agriculture, 1978, pp. 19-21). 85. Commercial rice mills (both non-modernized and modern) also have a poor record of capacity utilization with estimates varying from 9 percent to 50 percent. In 1978, the Ministry of Agriculture's Rice Task Force found 50 percent of commercial mills not operating at all and the other 50 percent working at 20-30 percent capacity. More recent estimates from Bangladesh Shipla Bank show that almost one-third of commercial mills are not operating and that capacity utilization of installed modern mills has never exceeded 50 percent. Explanations relate to poor management, power failures, lack of sufficient consignments of paddy and, in the case of fully automated plants, an inability to use mechanical dryers because of high cost, thus limiting processing capacity to the amount which can be sundried. The main problem here is obviously one of space which is especially problematic if the mills are located in urban areas. 86. Some mechanization of other post-harvest processes has also occurred. The introduction of pedal threshers has been ongoing in - 51 - Bangladesh for more than 20 years, but their use has spread very slowly outside Comilla district. Diffusion is increasing, particularly in areas where short, stiff-strawed varieties are grown. The threshers are locally manufactured in large cooperative workshops (for example, the Comilla Cooperative Karkhana produces 2,000 per annum) and in small workshops which produce two to three a year. The threshers now cost about Tk 1,000 each, are operated by one man or woman, and have an output of 80-100 kg/hour, roughly five times the output obtained using manual techniques. 87. Improved dryers (using a variety of- fuels including solar energy) are being introduced at the small farmer, cooperative, and large storage unit/mill levels. Capacities vary from 20 maunds to 2,000 maunds of paddy per day and capital costs from Tk-l,000 to Tk 900,000. As yet, no acceptable small farm-level dryer has been developed; experiments at the cooperative level have failed for a variety of reasons and tests on large-capacity dryers installed in government storage areas in northern Bangladesh have yet to be carried out.12/ As mentioned above, fully automatic rice mills incorporate sophisticated mechanical.dryers, which are used rarely because of the high cost of operation. In short, practically all paddy produced in Bangladesh is still sundried in the traditional way, either on mud floors/mats at the household level or on concrete/brick paved yards at the large mill level. 12/ One reason given by the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) engineers for the failure to develop an appropriate household-level crop dryer is that male engineers have been unable to communicate adequately with the women who traditionally carry out the process of crop drying. Similarly, one of the reasons given for the failure of cooperative drying schemes is that the process is being transferred to men who do not have the traditional skills of women in this task. (See Harris, 1978). - 52 - 88. Mechanization of other processes such as pre-cleaning, soaking, and parboiling is restricted to automatic and semi-automatic mills. There have been a few laboratory experiments to develop improved technologies for use at the small-farm level. In some cases, soaking and parboiling equipment on a scaled-up level is used in larger rural mills and in non-modernized commercial mills, but an estimated 90 percent of these processes are still carried out by women at the bari (household) level using traditional techniques. Cause and Impact of Mechanized Milling Factors in the Spread of Rural Hullers 89. The major factor influencing the spread of rural rice mills is cost reduction. The comparative costs for milling and total processing at the ba level and in rural mills in 1977 is shown in Table 4. Table 4: Comparative Costs of Processing Cost of Milling Cost of Processing Total Cost ------------------ Taka per maund ------------------- Bari level (using dheki) 11.8 4.0 15.8 Mill level (using steel huller) 1.0 2.4 10.4 Source: Ministry of Agriculture, 1978. - 53 - 90. The cost differential in milling between the household and commercial mill is about 12:1, enabling mill owners to charge very low rates for milling (rates vary between TK1.2 and TK 3.0 per maund) while making very high profits. Investment in a mill is thus a very profitable proposition. For other processing the cost differential is less than 2:1 and explains why this activity is still largely carried out at the household level, with only the husking/polishing operation being an attractive proposition outside the household. The proportion of family labor involved in other processing is greater than in husking/polishing. Also, the cost of female labor used for other processing is less than the cost for dheki work; in addition, when other processing is carried o'ut at the mill, more or less traditional techniques are used and apart from some lowering of costs due to economies of scale, significant cost reduction is not achieved. - 91. The demand for milling services comes predominantly from surplus farmers who can dispense with the relatively more expensive dheki method using hired female labor. These differential costs do not reflect the transportation costs involved in using a mill or the relatively lower output of rice for a steel huller versus the dheki.13/ The difference in output of rice is approximately one seer (0.93 kg) per maund (37.33 kg), costing Tk 3.46 in 1977. Small loads (0.25 to 0.50 maund) are generally head-carried to the mill by a male family member and in some instances involve an opportunity cost to the family. For larger loads, boats or 13/ Recent estimates based on field work give a milling yield of 72.02 percent from dheki and 69.94 percent from a rural mill. (Greeley, 1982). - 54 - carts are used, with significant economies of scale in transportation. As seen in Table 5, with "hidden" costs taken into account, it is still profitable for a large number of farmers to switch from the dheki to the mill. Table 5: Cost of Processing Adjusted to Allow for Transportation Costs and Cost of Lower Rice Output, 1977 Value of Cost of Milling Transport* Lost Rice Total Cost …--…------------------ Tk per maund ----…------------------ Dheki 11.8 - - 11.8 Steel Huller 1.0 3.52 3.46 7.98 * on the basis of one man carrying headload of one maund paddy and return trip to mill of a maximum distance of two miles taking 1/2 day. Opportunity cost taken as 75 percent agricultural wage rate in 1977 = Tk 9.39 x 0.50 x 0.75 = Tk 3.52. 92. On the supply side, investment in mills has increased with the spread of cheap, subsidized electricity that allows even greater profits to be made. In one area of the Tangail district, for instance, within a year of connection to the electricity grid, the number of mills increased from four (diesel) to 18 (electric). (Greeley, 1981). 93. The marked increase in energy costs, both diesel and electricity which account for a high proportion of total milling costs, has obviously had an impact on milling charges and/or profits. The costs of energy in 1977, 1980, and 1982 are given in Table 6. - 55 - Table 6: Changes in Energy Costs 1977 1980 1982 Diesel (Tk per gallon) 13.75 22.50 35.00 Electricity (Tk per Kwh) 0.60 1.25 1.75 94. In the case of an electric mill, variable costs are estimated at 72 percent of total costs of milling, and energy costs are 84 percent of variable costs. In 1977 when the average cost of commercial milling was Tk 1.00 per maund,14/ energy costs at this time were Tk 0.61 per maund. In 1980, electricity charges rose to Tk 1.25 per maund and, holding everything else equal, the cost of milling rose to Tk 1.64 per maund. Surveys of rice mills conducted before the 1982 price increases show the average charge for milling in electric mills to be Tk 3.0 per maund;15/ mill owners passed on 83 percent of the rise in energy costs to their customers. Charges for milling in diesel mills in 1981 ranged from Tk 5- Tk 7 per maund. Energy costs increased again in 1982, but the effect on milling charges is not yet analyzed. There is evidence that numerous mills (presumably the less profitable ones) are being forced to close due to rising energy costs, but this phenomenon is not widespread. However, in anticipation of even higher energy costs, now is a good time to start thinking in terms of finding alternative renewable and locally available 14/ This is the average cost from the 14 mills surveyed in the 1978 Ministry of Agriculture Task Force Report, most of which were electric mills. 15/ This is the average cost from the 50 mills surveyed by the Ministry of Agriculture (1981)--again the majority of mills were electric. - 56 - sources of energy for operating rice mills.16/ Rising energy costs may also make it worthwhile to investigate further the possiblity of improving the mechanical efficiency of the dheki so as to make it more cost- competitive with the rural mill. Factors in the Spread of Automatic Rice Mills 95. Commercial processing facilities have spread in response to greater quantities of paddy coming onto the market, both privately and through government procurement schemes. Non-modernized commercial mills were established in marketing and urban centers, which handled large quantities of bulk traded Government-procured paddy. Operating with batteries of steel hullers, many mills expanded to meet demand simply by adding more hullers to the production line. On average, such mills have about four to five hullers working, handling a capacity of up to 900 maunds per day. 96. More recently, individuals in the private sector have put forward several proposals for loans to invest in modern rice-processing plants. Fully automatic mills typically have a capacity of 9,600 tons per year (55 maunds per hour, 16 hours per day, 300 days a year) but, unlike the older non-modernized mills, they involve a high content of foreign exchange in total capital investment. Further, the older commercial mills utilize predominantly locally manufactured equipment, as well as a significant amount of female labor to carry out pre-milling operations using scaled-up 16/ Some experimentation is already going on with Sterling Engines using riceshusks but there would also seem to be great potential in nve t gating the technological and economic possibilities of using improved small-scale steam engines utilizing rice husks. - 57 - household technology, while the modern plants use imported equipment for pre-cleaning, soaking, parboiling, and drying operations. 97. In 1977, although half the existing commercial mills were non- operational and many others were operating below capacity, 25 proposals for large-scale processing plants had been submitted, and only two were imple- mented. By 1981, some of these additional proposals were approved and implemented. The situation in 1981 is shown in Table 7. Table 7: Commercial Rice Milling Projected on Completion 1981 of New Proposals Number of Automatic Rice Mills 20 72 Number of Non-Modernized Commercial Rice Mills 217 243 Total Commercial Mills 237 315 % of Automatic Mills in Total 6.4 19.6 Annual Capacity of Automatic Rice Mills 200,000 tons 800,000 tons Annual Capacity of Non-Modernized Rice Mills 990,000 tons 1,102,000 tons Total Annual Capaicty of Commercial Rice Mills Operating 1,190,000 tons 1,902,000 tons Number of Commercial Mills Not in Operation 82 n.a. Total Annual Capacity Operating and Non-Operating Mills 1,859,716 tons n.a. Source: Bangladesh Shipla Bank. 98. Private sector interest in investment in modern rice mills is prompted by anticipation of high rates of return, and Government encourages - 58 - such investment because of concern to have access to adequate processing facilities for increasing volumes of procured paddy. 99. When working at (or near) full capacity, the operational cost of an automatic plant producing 9,600 tons annually works out at Tk 8.00 per maund.17/ A modern rice mill cannot run economically with batches of less than 1,000 maunds of paddy, and since very few traders in the private sector have sufficient capital to invest in this amount of paddy, most prefer to take their trade to non-modernized mills. The modern rice mills, then, are almost totally dependent on securing contracts from government for processing procured paddy. Although the commission paid by government for milling paddy is only Tk 5.1 per maund, profits can still be made, given the "hidden" subsidies involved in government contract work.18/ Indeed, rates of return on capital are generally calculated in prefeasibility studies as 25-30 percent per annum. 100. In practice, however, problems have arisen and the performance of modern mills has been far from satisfactory. In combination, a shortage of power, lack of sufficient quantities of government and privately procured 17/ This is the cost figure given by BSB on the basis of a 300 day year working two shifts of eight hours each day. When working at lower capacities, the average cost of milling rises. For instance, the Task Force investigation in 1977 estimated that one modern mill which had never operated at more than 9 percent of capacity had operating costs of Rs. 20.83 per maund. With recent rises in energy costs, this would now be Rs. 26.00 per maund. 18/ Hidden subsidies consist of the right to retain and sell any rice recovered over and above the agreed rate of 64.2 percent, plus all by-products such as broken rice, bran and husk. For project proposals, the sale of such products per maund of paddy milled is estimated at Tk 11.47. This adequately compensates for the difference between the milling rate and the theoretical cost of milling. - 59 - paddy, the high operating costs of mechanical dryers, and poor management have resulted in low capacity utilization, which raises the costs and reduces profits. In some cases, special measures have been necessary to enable a mill to operate. For instance, the modern rice mill in Comilla (installed in 1973) now operates through a special dispensation of the Food Ministry which permits a milling commission of 150 percent of the normal Tk 5.1 per maund. Given current and planned capacity of commercial mills (1,902,000 tons annually) in relation to current and anticipated volumes of government-procured paddy (1,270,000 tons annually), it seems unlikely that commercial capacity utilization would improve significantly. 101. Under the circumstances, further investment in modern rice mills would appear unwise, especially since many of the reasons given by Government for favoring them (higher milling efficiency, lower percentage of broken grains, superiority of drying techniques) have not been substantiated in practice. 102. The large and increasing volume of government-procured paddy necessitates modernized, high-volume mills, but if ready-processed rice (having already been milled in various parts of the country in non-modern- ized commercial mills, rural hullers and by dheki) were procured by Government, then the need for automated processing facilities would be correspondingly lessened. 103. The spread of modern rice mills is encouraged by the "milling cost compensation" element in official procurement prices for paddy and rice. Based on the paddy/rice conversion ratio of 3 to 2, a "rice equivalency price" of paddy per maund of milled rice can be estimated. The - 60 - difference between the rice equivalency price of paddy and the official procurement price for milled rice is the "milling cost compensation" element in the procurement price for rice. Depending on the actual cost of milling, this compensation may be a disincentive, or a sizeable incentive to milling. For example, using 1979/80 prices of Tk 96 per maund, the "rice equivalency price" of paddy was Tk 144 (= 96 x 3/2) per maund of milled rice. Thus, at a price of Tk 154 per maund for rice, the "milling cost compensation" was Tk 10 per maund which, with milling costs at Tk 3 per maund and total processing costs at Tk 6 to 7 per maund, represented a substantial incentive towards providing ready-milled rice. Notably, the volume of paddy procured in its unprocessed form in that year was at a low level (295,000 tons). 104. An analysis of changes in official procurement prices for paddy and rice reveals that milling cost compensation has declined, thus increasing the incentive to dispose of unprocessed paddy through the government procurement scheme. Table 8 shows these changes along with levels of paddy procured by government. Table 8: Milling Cost Compensation and Paddy Procurement Procurement Price Tk per Maund Implicit Milling Transport Cost Procurement Paddy Rice Bonus Compensation of Paddy (Gross) ('000 tons) Nov. 1979/a 96 154 4 10 295 Nov. 19797W 105 165 5 7.5 295 Nov. 1980 110 170 5 5 963 Nov. 1981 119 185 5 6.5 1,270 /a Original announcement. /b Revision on November 11, 1979. - 61 - 105. As a policy matter, it is important to rationalize differentials between paddy and rice procurement prices and to increase the rice procurement price relative to paddy so as to restore and enhance the incentive for grain sellers to offer milled/husked rice to the government for procurement. Storing milled rice requires significantly less storage space than storing unmilled paddy; the unit cost incurred by Government for commercial milling, including the indirect costs of repeated hauling and rebagging of paddy, is significantly higher than the price differential between milled rice and paddy; the large majority of sharecroppers and small farmers mill their own paddy and sell it as rice (and thus, returns to small-scale processing and women's groups running husking businesses would increase with a higher rice price); and many landless laborers (predominantly women) are deprived of employment and income if farmers sell their output to the government as paddy. Impact of Mechanization on Output and Employment 106. A frequent argument favoring mechanized post-harvest operations cites reduction of food losses as an advantage, but the spread of steel hullers and automatic rice mills has had a limited (even negative) impact on such efficiency. At the same time, the steel hullers in rural areas have resulted in significant displacement of female workers, while the automatic rice mills have, in addition, used up substantial amounts of scarce capital and foreign exchange. 107. Output of rice from the steel huller is actually lower than from the dheki (69.94 percent compared to 72.02 percent). In addition, fewer - 62 - grains are broken with the use of the dheki (28-30 percent compared to 30-54 percent) and it gives a less polished rice.19/ Also, when using the dheki, it is easier to separate the bran and husk than when a steel huller is used. With 30 percent of the country's paddy production milled in steel hullers (rather than dheki), 3.5 millon maunds of rice valued in 1980/81 prices at more than Tk 746 million are lost. 108. Other effects of the steel huller are less easy to quantify. The higher proportion of broken grains results in a lower price. However, the better polished rice, even though less nutritious, has a higher market price. Broken grains sell for Tk 90 per maund, compared to Tk 170 for rice. Although bran and husk are rarely sold, a certain amount of wastage occurs in that the entire mixture is used either as fuel (thus wasting the protein value of the bran) or as animal feed. In other countries, simple screens are fitted to steel hullers to help with the separation of by-products, but this procedure has not been tried in Bangladesh. 109. In general, solutions to the problems associated with steel hullers have been sought not in promoting a return to the dheki or in improving the efficiency of the huller, but in promoting the use of large automatic rice mills. In theory, these mills should provide a higher recovery of rice, lower percentage of brokens, higher quality rice, lower moisture content, and better quality by-products than steel hullers. However, in practice, the automatic mills have not been as efficient as planned. For example, the percentage of brokens is not as low as specified 19/ Less polished rice is more nutritious than highly polished rice which has had all of the germ/bran removed and although it fetches a lower price In urban markets, it is widely preferred in rural areas. - 63 - by makers, due to differences in rice varieties; breakage levels are also affected by the high moisture content of the paddy when mechanical dryers are not used. The quality of rice is not as high as expected because farmers tend to offload their poorest quality paddy to the government procurement systems and low-quality paddy yields low-quality rice. In any case, there is no evidence of premium prices for high-quality rice in Bangladesh, and the price difference between the top and coarsest varieties is only 20-25 percent, thus, expenditure on equipment to improve quality is not easy to justify. 110. The most significant impact of the spread of steel hullers in rural areas has been on the employment of rural women. As seen in Table 3, the rural huller, on average, has-a capacity of 160 maunds per eight-hour day, compared to the dheki's capacity of 1.3 maunds. Each mill (if working at capacity) displaces 123 dhekis, each of which provides part-time employment to two or three female operators. In theory, each mill could displace between 250 and 370 women, although, in practice, assuming capacity utilization of 57 percent, the number would be 142-200 women. With an estimated 10,000 steel hullers in rural areas, between 1.4 million-2.0 million women have lost a traditional source of productive part-time employment. With approximately 700 mills per annum established, an estimated 100,000-140,000 women are being displaced each year. On the assumption that each woman works 50 days per annum, this means the loss is 5 million-7 million man-days of productive employment per annum, compared to the estimated total employment in rice processing of 406 million man- days. - 64 - 111. In order to estimate the impact and implications of this labor displacement, it is necessary to differentiate among three categories of women involved. First, female members of large surplus farms, in general, have benefitted from the change in technology. Although they did not operate the dheki themselves, they had to supervise hired female labor who did; in using the mill, they have more leisure time and their families have benefitted economically by displacing dheki wage labor with cheaper milling costs. Second, female members of subsistence farms who previously operated the dheki benefit from the rice mill in the relief from time-consuming and physically demanding labor. Their use of the mill, however, is restricted by their ability to pay cash for milling costs and in some cases transpor- tation costs. Third, wage-labor women from landless families who do dheki work to augment family income and their families have suffered as a result of technological change in the absence of alternative remunerative employ- ment. 112. In Bangladesh, most post-harvest operations, including dheki work, are undertaken by family labor. But at least 10 percent of total rice production is husked by hired landless women using the dheki, the equivalent of approximately 20 million man-days of employment for the poorest 5 percent of rural women. Recent studies indicate that this employment accounts for about 55 percent of their annual income and contributes as much as 15 percent to family income (Greeley, 1981, p. 26). 113. A recent survey of farm families in the Tangail district found that 33 percent had started to use rice mills and that 73 percent of the - 65 - mill users had previously hired women using the dheki. Apparently, the farmers most likely to use commercial mills are those who have been employing labor for dheki work rather than those who have been relying on "free" family labor. If this pattern is replicated on a country-wide basis, employment opportunities in husking for landless women are being eliminated annually at the rate of 3.6 million-5.1 million man-days. 114. Rural hullers do create some jobs, although in mills providing only husking/polishing services opportunity per mill is limited to two or three permanent male employees who are paid a monthly salary. Many mills also provide work for landless women who winnow the rice after husking. These women are paid by the mill's customers for their work and a recent study estimated that one woman could earn an average of Tk 3.5 per day (7 maunds per day at 50 paise per maund) (Ministry of Food, 1980). Some mills with boiler attachments also create work for women in soaking, parboiling, and drying activities. Recent surveys indicate that the poorest and most destitute women, i.e., the ones most likely to be displaced from dheki work, are also most likely to go to mill locations and seek other options since, through necessity, they are less constrained by purdah than less poverty-stricken females. However, the number of mill jobs created (about 20,000 permanent plus 40,000 part-time jobs) by no means compensates for the jobs displaced. Although the productivity of women's,labor increases almost two-fold in commercial processing, they do not receive extra income commensurately. Thus, they are exploited to an even greater extent than in traditional processing. - 66 - 115. Another interesting phenomenon is that poor working women in many parts of Tangail, Dhaka, Jamalpur, and Comilla districts are using the mills to their benefit. The poorest women rarely own a dheki, since they have neither the capital to invest in the equipment (now costing Tk 250-400) or the land on which to locate and operate it. If living near a mill, however, they are now able to enter into the paddy-husking business by buying paddy if they have the capital, parboiling and drying it, and having it hulled at the local rice mill. In this way, they can process three to four maunds of paddy a day, compared to only one maund a day with a dheki. At current milling rates, and given the larger possible output, the women are able to earn more per day than would be possible performing dheki work for other people. They are also able to earn higher profits than if setting up their own husking business with a dheki. The recent Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies rural industry study found that if labor costs are taken into account, husking businesses using only the dheki are not profitable.20/ Under the circumstances, the trend towards establishment of husking businesses using mills should be encouraged, since it obviously results in landless women being able to take advantage of the mechanical efficiency of the mills rather than being exploited by them. Their ability to participate will, however, be dependent on their access to credit to allow them to buy paddy. Many agencies such as Grameen Bank have 20/ The Ministry of Agriculture Task Force investigation also revealed very low returns to women's paddy husking business using dheki (Tk 1.5 per day per woman). This was lower than their earnings on food-for- work projects and one-third the average wage for unskilled male laborers. - 67 - started providing credit facilities specifically to the landless, and possibilities of expansion need to be explored.21/ 116. The Grameen Bank has also experimented with giving credit to a group of 30 landless women to facilitate their joint ownership of a small rice mill. These women all previously worked for other people in dheki work and in other post-harvest activities. Obviously a more difficult scheme than that of lending small amounts of credit to women for a paddy husking business, it entails considerable training and monitoring as well as organizational skill. This experiment is, however, very important. First, if successful, it will prove that women are capable of operating a mill themselves: normally, the milling process, although a woman's task traditionally, is taken over by men when machines are introduced. Second, the availability of a small female-owned and operated mill within a village is likely to be of benefit to many women who will use it, rather than having to wait for male members of the family to take grain to a mill outside the village. Third, it will offer the maximum opportunity for landless women to increase their earnings from a traditional occupation and to retain processing incomes within the village economy. Preliminary impressions are favorable and loans have, in fact, been given to three other women's groups to purchase a rice husking mill. If these schemes 21/ Grameen Bank and other voluntary agencies have credit schemes which are restricted to the poorest sections of society. In the case of Grameen Bank, these are the landless--defined in terms of owning less than 0.40 acres of land. Since this is the group most likely to have been displaced by the introduction of mills and other mechanization in rural areas, this is a useful way of developing alternative remunera- tive employment opportunities. - 68 - work successfully, they will obviously pave the way for similar schemes (M. Rahman, 1980). 117. The importance of such schemes that enable members of landless families to benefit from technical change rather than be displaced by it cannot be overemphasized. Without access to credit or productive resources, the majority of displaced women has been unable to find equally remunerative employment elsewhere; in most localities, alternatives for displaced women are general domestic work at half the dheki rate, unemployment, or begging. The organization of credit schemes to help women to earn from paddy husking in conjunction with the mills or owning a rice mill will obviously alleviate the situation. But given the scale of displacement, there is a need to identify and promote even more ways of creating new sources of employment and income. 118. Automatic rice mills have a greater effect on the employment of landless women than rural hullers do. Since these mills have a milling capacity 345 times greater than that of the dheki and since they displace labor not only in milling, but also in pre-milling activities, each mill can theoretically eliminate over 1,000 part-time jobs for women. In return, only approximately 30 jobs for skilled/semi-skilled male workers are created at a capital cost of Tk 250,000 per job. 119. Besides their negative impact on the employment of rural women, automatic mills using scarce capital and foreign exchange resources have a heavy cost to society. The same input of paddy could be handled by rural hullers at 6-7 percent of the investment cost for an automatic rice mill - 69 - (see Table 9). Much of this additional spending on automatic mills is moreover wasted on idle capacity. Breakdowns are frequent, and a plant can be put out of action when spare parts are not available. 120. Machinery for automatic mills is imported, whereas that for rural processing (e.g. hullers, belts, soaking, parboiling and winnowing equipment) is made locally, thus creating employment and income for local firms and artisans (including landless women). Paddy has to be transported over long distances to supply large automatic mills and facilities must be constructed for storage. Automatic mills completely remove by-products as a valuable source of fuel and animal feed; with rural processing, the by-products are retained at the village level. 121. The more easily quantifiable characteristics of the rural mill and the automatic mill are compared in Table 9. Table 9: Comparison of Rural Hullers and Automatic Mills Rural Hullers Automatic Mills Number for same capacitya/ 6.53 1.00 Capital Cost (Tk) 437,511 7,500,000 Foreign exchange cost as percent of capital cost 20 30-50 Employment (people) 39-45 30 Cost per workplace (Tk) 11,000-13,500 250,000 Cost of milling (Tk per maund) 3 8 Recovery of rice as percent of paddy unit 69.94 71.87 Rice output from paddy (tons) 3,357 3,449 of which: whole (tons) 2,330 3,142 broken (tons) 1,025 307 Value of rice output (Tk) 15,392,632b/ 15,813,43lb/ Value added (Tk) 720,270 1,142,069 Value added per Tk of capital (Tk) 1.68 0.15 a/ Average rated capacity of automatic mills of 9,600 tons per year is based on operation of 300 days a year and 16 hours per day. Rural hullers generally work for 8 hours a day over 250 days a year. b/ This calculation does not allow for the effect of differences in prices for broken grains or by-products. - 70 - Although the automatic mill can be expected to give a higher recovery of rice, the rural huller has a much higher productivity of capital (measured in terms of value added per unit of capital invested), has a lower cost per workplace, and uses far less capital and foreign exchange. Also, storage and transportation costs involved with the rural huller and susceptibility to breakdowns are lower and ease of operation, maintenance, and repair is greater. In addition, the rural huller has the advantage of being able to handle large numbers of small batches of paddy and, being small-scale, can provide services close to where people live. 122. Due to these advantages of the rural huller over the automatic rice mills and its advantage over dheki milling, it would seem imperative to devote resources to overcoming the huller's existing defects with respect to quantity and quality of output. As yet, no one has taken a serious look at the possibilities of reducing the apparent food losses involved in using a steel huller or at ways of decreasing breakages and separating out good quality bran. Yet such research could be carried out at a fraction of the cost of the resources invested in automatic rice mills. 123. The benefits of technological research on rural hullers would be: food losses resulting from the use of 10,000 rural hullers would be reduced; possibilities would exist for creating employment and import substitution through small-scale processing of oil from rice bran; and the need to import costly automated plants would be reduced. - 71 - Other Rice Processing Operations 124. Food losses can occur in any of the 11 post-harvest activities, not only in husking/polishing. Without the use of improved technology, food losses during processing can be quite high in the market surplus/ commercial sector; at farm level, they are much lower. The technology used in activities such as threshing and drying will affect milling efficiency (irrespective of the milling technology used). For example, inadequately dried paddy increases the amount of rice broken during milling. 125. Proposals for more capital-intensive technologies in post-harvest operations are typically based on the argument that food losses from existing technologies are as high as 40 percent. Published estimates of farm-level losses vary by source: 20-25 percent cited by voluntary organizations, 35 percent by leading manufacturers of modern rice processing equipment; and 20-40 percent by scientists in international donor agencies. Losses of 20 percent in the commercial sector are not uncommon. Figures commonly quoted for farm-level losses are estimates rather than based on physical measurement. By contrast, recent research aimed specifically at providing reliable estimation of food loss in village-level processing of grain retained for home consumption indicates that average physical weight loss is less than 7 percent. The loss estimated in each operation is shown in Table 10. - 72 - Table 10: Physical Food Losses in Village Post-Harvest Operations Pre-Storage Losses Percent Loss Cutting 1.45 Field Stacking 0.50 Transportation 0.53 Threshing 1.79 Total to threshing 4.3 Storage Raw paddy 3.30 Potboiled paddy 2.40 Potboiled rice 2.50 Average (weighted) 2.6 Total food losses 6.9 Source: Greeley, 1981, p. 10 126. The absence of drying from this table is of some interest, given the resources that have been allocated by several institutes in Bangladesh towards developing an improved crop dryer for use by small farmers. Such work has been prompted by the assumption that losses occur as a result of reliance on sun-drying and that small farmers would therefore find it economically worthwhile to invest in a dryer or pay for custom drying services. An analysis carried out to assess the cost effectiveness of a small paddy dryer provides a cost-benefit ratio of 1:1.7, based on an assumed (not estimated) loss of 3 maunds for every 40 maunds of paddy sun dried (i.e., a loss of 7.5 percent) (M. Rahman, 1980). Obviously, if losses are negligible, there would be little incentive for a farmer to substitute essentially free family labor with an expensive dryer. Indeed, small farmers in Bangladesh have shown very little interest in improved drying techniques. - 73 - 127. Given the low and diverse nature of food losses on small farms, based on experience with small paddy dryers, there would seem to be little future in or justification for devoting resources to developing technologies aimed specifically at reducing them, especially if this diverts attention and resources from more realistic ways of reducing hunger. 128. As seen in the case of rice milling, technological change also occurred in threshing for reasons of reducing cost rather than food losses. At a cost of Tk 1,000, a pedal thresher allows a farmer to thresh his crop with one operator instead of five casual laborers. This results in a saving of approximately Tk 70 per ton of paddy threshed. For a 3-acre farm with an assumed yield of 14.6 maunds per acre and two crops per annum, the resultant saving is Tk 210 per annum. As seen is Table 11, however, the thresher, like the rural mill, can increase rather than reduce food losses; even so, it is a worthwhile investment for medium-size and large farms. But as with the mills, the technological change is occurring at the expense of the workers displaced, usually casual laborers from landless families. Table 11: Food Losses in Threshing Techniques % loss Bullock treading (broadcast rice) 2.4 Hand beating followed by /short straw 0.60 bullock treading (transplanted rice) long straw 1.45 Pedal thresher (transplanted rice) /short straw 1.82 long straw 3.49 Source: Greeley, 1982, p. 56. - 74 - 129. The implications seem clear. Resources currently devoted to researching ways of improving small-farm crop-processing technologies are unlikely to yield significant reduction in food losses, and would be better used to assist those who are being displaced by technological changes. They might assist groups of landless women to gain access to mills and threshers so that they can benefit from, rather than be displaced by, such changes; they might also be used to promote research and development of technologies that create new rural employment opportunities for women through the processing of underutilized resources, such as processing oil from rice bran in the village. 130. In Bangladesh, where market surpluses come from millions of relatively small holdings and where government is committed to a procurement scheme which handles increasing quantities of grain, the problems of collection, transportation, storage, and processing are enormous. 131. Alternative solutions, some institutional and some technical, to dealing with marketed surpluses do exist. On the institutional side, the problem of drying large quantities of centrally collected wet paddy could be averted if incentives were increased to provide ready-processed rice through the government procurement system. Smaller quantities of paddy could be dried using less capital-intensive techniques and also provide more work in rural areas. Technical measures to help non-modernized mills cope more efficiently with large batches of paddy are needed. Improved technologies for increased efficiency of soaking and parboiling operations could also be investigated; for example, the technology developed at the - 75 - Karikpur Rice Processing Center in India combines the soaking and parboil- ing system in one process and reduces the time taken from 48 hours to 5 hours. 132. Technical improvements and institutional incentives to use existing processing facilities make better sense than spending large amounts of foreign exchange on imported plants. Resources used on the importation of high-cost technology would in the long term be more cost- effective if spent on improving technologies or developing new ones more suited to prevailing conditions in Bangladesh. C. Technology and Employment in the Processing of Other Crops and Other Rural Activities 133. Substantial displacement of landless women, due to mechanization in rice processing will continue to take place in the near future. In order to maintain the level of rural incomes and thus the level of demand for food (poor households spend 80 percent of their income on food, compared to 62 percent in richer households), it is important to find ways and means of productively reabsorbing those being displaced by mechaniza- tion (Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), 1981, p. 337). Through the organization of credit schemes that enable landless women to take advantage of those technologies which are already being diffused (mainly rice mills and paddy threshers), the problem could be partially solved. There is need to expand the outreach of these schemes. However, increased employment opportunities for women outside of rice processing are also needed. - 76 - Processing of Crops Other than Paddy 134. The processing of crops other than paddy--jute, wheat, sugarcane, oilseeds, silk, fruits, vegetables and nuts--represents a significant actual and potential source of employment for landless women in rural areas. It is an important area in which to seek alternative employment for those women displaced by rice-processing technology as well as a potential expansion in rural employment opportunities. The Second Five-Year Plan proposed that acreage and output of many crops should be expanded because of their importance in terms of import substitution, export earnings, high demand for labor, and provision of inputs to important labor-intensive cottage industries such as food processing. 135. As with paddy, the processing of most other crops in Bangladesh is undertaken with the use of low-cost traditional technologies that are characterized by high levels of labor input and low levels of return to labor. Improved technologies will obviously play an important part in overcoming constraints on processing higher levels of output; however, this in no way implies that large-scale imported technologies will be required: Indeed, the experience with rice processing suggests that large-scale technologies for processing crops grown predominantly on scattered small holdings can be counterproductive and can waste resources. Jute 136. After rice, jute is the most important crop in terms of providing employment in processing activities. Of an estimated 105 man-days per acre - 77 - involved in jute production, approximately 30-40 percent are used in processing activities (retting, stripping, washing, drying and bundling). Most of this work is done by female family members with the help of hired female workers. In FY81, this provided an estimated 45-55 million days of work for women, of which 15-18 million days were for hired female labor (mainly from landless families). 137. About 40 percent of the annual jute crop tends to be of low quality due, according to studies by the Bangladesh Jute Research Institute (BJRI), to inadequate retting and washing facilities and improper retting practices, prompting a search for improved technological solutions (Bangladesh Jute Research Institute, 1980/81). A commercial decorticating or ribboning machine was located and imported to test technical feasibility and economic viability, but was found to be unsuitable because of the cost in relation to jute farmers' income. Its use also resulted in broken jute sticks, thus eliminating the sale of whole sticks for fencing and building purposes as an important source of income22!. The Institute attempted to identify a technology more appropriate to local needs, means, and circumstances, and developed a low-cost "intermediate" technology that reduces retting time from 12 days to 8 days, allows double the quantity of fiber to be retted in a given quantity of water, and improves the quality 22/ Jute sticks are available at the rate of 2 maunds for each maund of fiber. The sticks are also an important source of fuel, often fetching a price similar to low-grade firewood. - 78 - of fiber extracted from the hard base of the jute plant.23/ This new technique is now being demonstrated in 500 locations in Bangladesh with a view to proving its technical and economic feasibility. If adopted by farming families on a widespread basis, it provides the opportunity for increasing employment and incomes and eliminates the need for imports.24/ The new technique is being demonstrated by men, whereas it is women (to whom they have no direct access) who are responsible for the retting/ washing processes. This could well impede adoption of a process/device which is seen as being women's work. Thought should be given to the possibilities of utilizing more female extension workers. A recent estimate suggests that some 10 million work-days of employment could be created by the universal adoption of the ribboner. Much of this would be family labor, but a sizeable portion could be for hired female laborers if they are given appropriate training related to the new technology. Wheat 138. The introduction of a new crop can often result in the need for new technologies in the processing sector. One example in Bangladesh is the introduction of wheat which, because it is harder to thresh than paddy, has resulted in post-harvest bottleneck on 2-3 acre farms and stimulated a demand for an improved threshing technology. 23/ With traditional techniques, this low-quality fiber fetches only 33 percent of normal price. The ribboning process consists of the removal of the hard base and core of the plant and the splitting of the remaining, usable fibrous mass into slender ribbons in order to aid rapid water penetration during the retting process. The "intermediate" technology ribboner involves the use of a few simple bamboo hooks, each costing a few taka. Although the ribboning operation has been claimed to reduce fiber quality, the consequent gains at the retting stage almost certainly offset these effects. 24/ See footnote 2, page 17. - 79 - 139. A review of existing technologies by the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee revealed that the smallest available commercial thresher, imported, with an output of 250 kg/hr, was too expensive and too big for the farmers requesting assistance and that the locally manufactured paddy thresher was no more efficient in threshing wheat than the traditional beating technique. Attempts are underway to develop a small manually operated machine which, however, would probably be out of the price range of small farmers and would be used mainly by larger farmers to overcome labor bottlenecks and save labor costs. Any employment created for groups of landless women would be in performing custom services. Sugar/Gur 140. According to BSCIC's 1981 survey on cottage industries, there are 17,881 units for making gur (unrefined sugar) in Bangladesh, employing 63,665 persons of which 25 percent are hired laborers (Kanwal, 1982). Gur technology, as used throughout Bangladesh, has remained unchanged for many years. The juice is extracted by three-roller vertical traditional crushers driven by bullock power; it is then boiled in open pans using bagasse and paddy straw as fuel; and finally, the thick juice is poured into earthenware pots and allowed to form gur. Women are predominant in the latter two activities. Crushers, pans, and accessories (Tk 35,000 total cost) are rented by farmers for the season at a cost of Tk 75 per month (Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), 1981). 141. This relatively labor-intensive cottage industry exists side by side with a modern capital-intensive sugar industry that produces white plantation sugar in 15 factories. Although they produce two different - 80 - products (catering to different markets), the two industries compete with each other for raw material (at least for the 35 percent of sugarcane acreage that is within the so-called "mill" zones). 142. From the standpoint of employment and nutrition, the gur industry is preferable to the modern sugar industry. However, as seen in Table 12, it is less efficient in productive terms. Table 12: Comparative Sugar Processing Techniques Plantation Gur White Sugar Scale (tons of cane/day) 1-2 1,250 Yield as percent of cane crushed 50-60 90 Sucrose percent 60-80 up to 90 Keeping quality Limited Good Man-days per ton of output 30-50 10 Source: Kanwal, 1982. 143. Both the Institute of Appropriate Technology (on behalf of the Government's Planning Commission) and BSCIC are investigating ways of improving gur-making technology. Planned improvements in the BSCIC program include: cutting and shredding of cane prior to crushing, necessitating the use of a horizontal roller rather than a vertical roller, but increasing yield by 10 percent; introduction of flat bottom pans; demonstration of and training in the use of improved furnaces; use of better clarifying agents derived from local plants; and introduction of airtight storage bins and cellophane wrapping. BSCIC's extension channels would be used to deliver credit to producers for purchase of equipment and - 81 - to demonstrate new techniques. Most BSCIC extension agents are men who may not have direct access to the women who are largely responsible for the boiling and storing operations. 144. Several landless groups (some of them women's groups) are engaged in gur manufacture with the help of loans from agencies such as BRAC. The BRAC groups typically consist of 30 women or 30 men who farm a total of 16 acres on a 50:50 basis with a local farmer. The sharecropper group provides all labor and the farmer pays them 50 percent of the labor cost, that is, the labor in his half of the field. In addition, the farmer pays for half the cost of plants, fertilizer, and other inputs. Production in the form of gur is divided equally between the group and the farmer. In addition, the wages earned by the group in preparing half of the field for the farmer are charged at normal agricultural rates (Tk 15-20 per day for men; Tk 8-10 per day for women). 145. Important intermediate technologies for consideration are evident in the "mini" sugar plants now widely used in India providing a great deal of employment for unskilled women who sun-dry the bagasse which is then used for fuel. Khandsari, the sugar produced, costs more per unit than gur, but unlike gur, it is an acceptable substitute for white plantation sugar since it contains 94-98 percent sucrose. The advantages of "mini" plants versus large-scale plants can be seen in Table 13, using data from India. - 82 - Table 13: Comparative Data on Large-Scale and "Mini" Sugar Technology Large-scale "Mini" Plants Plants Total capital available for investment (Rs million) 60 60 Capital required for installation of one unit (Rs million) 60 1.3 Number of units which can be set up with available capital 1 46 Working days 120 100 Total sugar output (tons per annum) 14,550 43,500 Persons employed 900 9,292 Source: Garg, 1980, p. 51. One US dollar is roughly equivalent to ten Indian rupees. 146. Mini sugar units now crush 10 percent of total sugarcane grown in India and the technology has been successfully transferred to other countries, such as Kenya. They should be considered as an alternative to large mills in any planned expansion of milling capacity in Bangladesh, especially since the large mills are reportedly facing problems in terms of organization/management and transport of raw materials. Transporting sugarcane over long distances to a centralized mill is not only expensive in terms of fuel costs, but also incurs losses in production due to sucrose depletion if the time between cutting and crushing exceeds 48 hours. Mini mills serving a smaller radius overcome these problems. Oilseeds 147. Many landless families in rural areas derive employment and income from purchasing oil seeds (normally rape and mustard) and selling - 83 - the oil, which they extract with a traditional ghani driven by a bullock or in some cases by female labor. They also perform custom services for small farmers. Oil pressing is estimated to provide employment for some 21,000-27,000 people of whom approximately 35 percent are women. 148. In a situation where 3 percent of rural incomes are spent on edible oil and where only 28 percent of demand is met by domestic produc- tion, there is enormous scope for expansion in oil pressing as a cottage industry, thus saving on imports of oil and oilseeds and creating rural employment. Here, too, choice of technology will have a bearing on output, employment, income distribution, and foreign exchange costs. Opting for large oil mill complexes and solvent extraction plants involves large amounts of foreign exchange (such plants cost several million Taka, of which 50-60 percent are foreign exchange). Also, supplying these large capacity plants with raw materials from widely dispersed small holdings presents enormous administrative problems and involves high transportation costs for collection of seeds and distribution of oil. A large plant utilizing imported seeds might be feasible to supply a large urban market such as Dhaka, but small-scale, village-level processing facilities using locally available raw materials should be more cost-effective in rural areas. - 84 - Table 14: Comparison of Alternative Oil Processing Technologies Bullock Rural Oil Modern Oil Ghani Mill Processing, Plant Number for same capacity 1,170 30-80 1.00 Capital cost (Tk) 3,500-7,000 50,000-900,000 over 10,000,000 Foreign Exchange as % of Capital Cost Nil 3-5 50-60 Employment per unit 2.5-3 15-20 75-150 Cost per workplace 1,200-2,800 15,000-40,000 60,000-200,000 Cost of milling Tk per 13.5 11.8 n.a. kg of seed Capacity--oil per day 6 Kg 272 Kg 6,350 Kg Capacity utilization percent 20 50-60 20 Recovery of oil as percentage 31.5 38-39 38-39 of seed Source: The World Bank Rural Employment Mission (February 1984) background working papers. 149. The milling efficiency of traditional techniques is low and an expanded decentralized oil processing industry will need to be based on some improvement in technology. According to recent reports, it is doubtful whether much can be done technically to increase the efficiency of the bullock ghani, due to the mechanical limitations of its design and construction. However, as seen in Table 14, an "intermediate" technology, the rural oil mill, increases labor productivity and decreases processing costs, while maintaining a relatively low cost per workplace. 150. Mechanized rural oil mills have been spreading fairly rapidly in the past 10 years, especially in areas benefitting from local electrifica- tion schemes. They are used in cottage and small-scale industry settings, - 85 - and are generally owned by local entrepreneurs. Two types of technology are used. One consists of a mechanized version of the traditional ghani, embodying pestle-and-mortar units, usually arranged in contra-rotating pairs, in which (unlike the bullock ghani) the pestles are held stationary while the mortars are rotated around them, normally by means of a belt drive powered by an electricity-driven line shaft. The number of pairs of mechanical ghani installed in a typical plant averages around 7-8, but the range is large (2-15 pairs), although in exceptional cases, more are installed. The pestle and mortar units are of a more efficient design that those used in the bullock ghani. However, their efficiency (about 35 percent) is still not equal to the more modern screw expeller. 151. This second technology consists basically of an enclosed horizontal rotating metal screw that causes the oilseeds to be subjected to great pressure, thereby causing the oil cells to be ruptured and the oil separated from the oilcake. It forms the basis of the majority of modern oilseed processing plants. Screw expellers exist in a wide range of capacities, from a few kilograms to several tons per hour. In the rural mechanized mills of Bangladesh, the screw expellers used are generally of small, or very small, capacity. An increasing number of rural mills are based solely on expeller technology, but the majority of rural mills consist of a battery of mechanical ghani supplemented by screw expellers. The usual practice is for the raw materials to be processed in the ghani, the resulting oilcake then being conveyed to the expeller unit or units, through which it is generally passed several times. Some pungency is maintained through using the ghani, but oil yield is increased by about 38 percent. - 86 - 152. Mechanical ghani yield oil of lower pungency than that obtainable from bullock ghani, but higher than that obtainable from a screw expeller. Although the importance of the pungency in mustard oil is a declining factor in rural tastes, its continuing influence is a major reason for the continuing popularity of the mechanical ghani technology vis-a-vis expellers. 153. The number of mechanized rural mills of all types, whether combining ghani and expeller technology or operating on expeller technology alone, is estimated to be currently between 750 and 1,200 and to be increasing with the spread of rural electrification. 154. As power supplies reach villages, the powered ghani has tended to replace the bullock ghani. According to recent estimates, the number of bullock ghani decreased from 25,060 in 1961 to 7,989 in 1980, with a corresponding fall in numbers employed in oil processing from 65,280 to 21,130. Of these jobs, approximately 35 percent were held by women, of whom three-quarters belong to households which are officially classified as landless (Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS)). Some new jobs, mainly for men, have been created in the mechanized rural oil mills, thus, doing little to counteract the displacement of landless women through mechanization. 155. The situation regarding mechanization of oil processing is similar to rice milling and undoubtedly deserves comparable examination. In particular, there seems to be a case for supporting rural mechanized mills versus large modern factories. Upon further assessment of the - 87 - employment impact of various oil milling technologies in Bangladesh, there may be employment potential for rural women to extract oil from seeds that are not being processed. Women's hold on the oil milling industry might be maintained through provision of loans to women's groups to establish rural oil mills. Sericulture and Ericulture 156. Silk production (breeding, reeling, spinning and weaving) is still minor in its contribution to domestic product in Bangladesh, but it provides employment to large numbers of rural women (many of them landless), and income to their families. Two kinds of silk are produced: mulberry silk (sericulture) and endi (ericulture), the latter being fed the leaves of castor or cassava which grow easily all over Bangladesh. Silk production is highly labor-intensive, and requires little capital outlay. The Second Five-Year Plan had ambitious targets for the expansion of both in order to provide income opportunities for the families of marginal farmers and the landless. 157. Available statistics indicate that the number of persons employed in sericulture, in all processes, rose from 18,000 in 1977/8 to 60,000 in 1981/2, and that the number should increase to 350,000 by the end of the Plan period. The allocation of employment is 77 percent for cultivation and rearing, 4 percent for reeling, and 13 percent for weaving. The participation of women in sericulture has been well recognized. Similar figures are not available for ericulture which is being promoted as a bari- based cottage industry, especially for women. - 88 - 158. Unfortunately, although more labor-intensive, employment opportunities for villages in the endi-silk industry are limited, since an appreciable amount of the spinning and weaving is done outside the village. As raw material it is difficult to weave and frequently has to be combined with cotton, the silk providing the weft while the stronger cotton constitutes the warp. Technical means of overcoming this constraint are urgently needed if the potential of the industry in creating jobs for landless women is to be realized. 159. If the full employment potential of the industry is to be realized, more study of the alternatives for its development is needed. For example, sericulture entails the development of small industry, as opposed to bari-based or cottage-based industries, and requires more capital investment. Ericulture emphasizes bari-based production, builds on existing skill and expertise, and can employ women in any of the production stages. With mulberry silk, there are limited possibilities for developing associated industries. With ericulture, however, cottage industries can be developed to utilize the cassava and castor plants on which the cocoons are reared. Starch can be manufactured from cassava tubers (or they can be used as a substitute for rice) and oil can be extracted from the castor seeds for use as an industrial lubricant. Research is also being conducted on the possibility of extracting oil from the cocoon wastes for use as a lubricating oil or as an input to soap making. All of these processing activities which could provide much needed jobs for rural women with appropriate small-scale technologies should obviously be encouraged, as - 89 - should schemes to provide rural women with the credit and training needed to take advantage of them.25/ Fruits, Vegetables, and Nuts 160. Fruits, vegetables, and nuts are grown in small holdings throughout Bangladesh, but the potential of processing them with a view to substituting for imports, expanding exports, and generating employment in rural areas is largely unexplored. 161. Generally, it is assumed that the high quality of foodstuffs needed for import substitution and/or export dictates the use of high-cost capital-intensive equipment. The Second Five-Year Plan recommends the establishment of two large fruit and vegetable processing and canning units. However, due to the need to create rural employment, the use of more labor-intensive technologies requiring less foreign exchange and lower energy costs should also be investigated. Evidence from several countries indicates that small-scale food-processing technologies can provide very high standard products.26/ 162. In Bangladesh, a Mennonite Central Committee pilot project has demonstrated that dessicated coconut produced by rural women with a minimum 25/ For details see S. Feldman, 1982. 26/ For example, highly labor intensive methods of production are successfully used in the processing of export crops such as cashew nuts in India; in parts of East Africa mangoes are processed using solar energy for commercial markets. UNIDO, 1979. - 90 - of capital equipment can attract markets in Dhaka and replace imported Malaysian coconut powder. Experiments carried out by other agencies have shown that spices ground manually by women's groups can compete quality- wise with commercially produced spices. Investigations are underway to locate a hand-operated grinding machine that would increase capacity, lower costs, and increase profits. Again, if resources were available by way of credit for landless women, the replication of these schemes, based on improved technologies, could create many needed jobs. 163. Another possibility is a small, mobile, fruit juice and concentrate manufacturing unit that could be moved from village to village. Fruit would be purchased and processed on the spot with the assistance of locally-hired female labor. The pulp could then be transported (by country boat) to collection centers and stored (with the help of preservatives) for eventual further processing into juices or concentrates for canning and sale locally or overseas. A similar scheme involving the processing of oranges worked well in St. Vincent. Obviously more employment could be created in areas growing several fruits, each ripening at different times. 164. A constraint on the development of a fruit and vegetable processing industry in many countries is the scarcity and cost of glass containers. In the case of dehydrated coconuts, for example, polythene bags can be used. Rigid plastic containers are now replacing glass containers in many countries and their efficient small-scale rural production has proved possible in neighboring South Asian countries. In Sri Lanka, for example, plastic containers are produced for the equivalent - 91 - of 0.6 Tk each, whereas comparable glass jars cost six to seven times as much. Possibilities of creating employment for rural landless women producing similar plastic containers in Bangladesh should be investigated. Technology and Employment in Other Rural Activities 165. Identifying, developing, and disseminating appropriate technological options are just as important in other industries as in agroprocessing. The socio-economic costs and employment implications of imported production processes for centralized, capital-intensive production needs to be examined carefully. In parallel, resources should be invested in locating or developing economically viable, intermediate alternatives. 166. Research aimed at developing appropriate agroprocessing technologies is, as seen, far from adequate. In sectors other than agriculture, such research is scant. As in agroprocessing, the amount of resources devoted to importing capital-intensive plants and equipment is vast, while the amount devoted to developing and producing technologies aimed specifically at increasing employment (or minimizing labor displacement) as well as increasing output, improving quality, and saving foreign exchange is negligible. 167. There are many products other than food that are needed and used regularly by local communities and purchased from urban manufacturing centers or from abroad. If appropriate technologies (along with training and credit) were made available to landless women, they could find productive employment in the village-level production of many of these commodities. - 92 - 168. A major category of products is the tools and accessories needed in agricultural/agroprocessing activities (e.g., baskets for winnowing, earthenware pots for parboiling paddy and processing gur, floors for drying paddy), that traditionally are made by women. Women should continue to find employment in the production of new and improved agricultural implements and household equipment, including stoves, jute ribboners, various types of packaging, and fishing nets. 169. A second major category worthy of investigation is textiles. As mentioned, village-level employment for landless women in silk production has potential. Technological improvements in the weaving of cotton (largely imported) and jute would assist women to produce competitively. Several agencies, such as HEED, BRAC, Save the Children, and Micro Industries Development Assistance Society (MIDAS), are involved in projects aimed at increasing the earnings of village women from textile production by making credit available for equipment and supplies, training, and technical assistance with design and marketing. Successful projects need to be identified with a view to widespread replication. 170. A third category of product demanded in rural communities is building materials for housing and storage. The Bangladesh-Swiss agricultural project involved a new technology requiring minimal capital for labor-intensive production of low-cost, jute-fiber reinforced roofing sheets, as a locally made alternative to expensive, imported galvanized iron roofing sheets. The project produces roofing sheets for the agency's warehouses and provides full-time employment for four workers who were trained on the job. Gonashasthya Kendra (GK) is training production teams of men and women to make vending boxes and other articles from similar material. - 93 - 171. Finally, there are many everyday goods which, given the appropriate technology, lend themselves to village-level production-- handmade paper, ropes, soap, pencils, chalk, and umbrellas. Several agencies including the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) and BRAC are experimenting with the introduction of improved technologies and necessary support packages to enable groups of landless women to produce these and other goods. 172. For example, MCC has a pilot project involving a group of landless women in the production of reem soap, which is being marketed in local health centers for treatment of skin ailments. BRAC is exploring the possible franchising of rural production of commodities such as soap, umbrellas, and pencils. The system would be advantageous where raw materials are scarce, where some parts of the product need to be manufactured in capital-intensive plants, or where quality control/brand name is essential to marketing. For soap, BRAC would be able to obtain access to imported raw materials and obtain discounts on bulk purchase. In the case of umbrellas and pencils, it could bulk purchase those parts (spokes and lead) not manufactured at the village level and distribute them to franchise-holders for finishing. 173. The backward linkages (agro-inputs) and forward linkages (crop and food processing equipment, consumer goods) to rising agricultural production and farm incomes provide new opportunities in the rural areas for job creation. For landless women these could include small-scale manufacture of a wide range of goods, provided that this opportunity is not preempted by the import of capital-intensive technology. Landless women's groups would need assistance by way of training, credit, and improved - 94 - technologies to meet increased demand. The implementation for such rural employment and income-generating programs for women requires, in addition to policy commitment from the Government, direct assistance, such as idet.tifying investment opportunities, organizing production groups, and ensuring their access to technical and financial support. PART III: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 174. In Bangladesh, as in many other countries, the process of modernization has had an adverse impact on the employment opportunities of rural women, especially those from the poorest sections of society. In particular, the spread of mechanization in the crop and food processing subsector is displacing off-farm employment opportunities that provide much needed income to landless women and their families. Although newer crop processing businesses have replaced the old, they employ fewer people, labor productivity and thus wages are higher, but the beneficiaries are inevitably men. Experiments are being made to involve women in alternative productive ventures based on new techniques, but they are a handful of scattered projects. As yet, there are no new women's industries to provide alternative employment opportunities on the scale required. 175. Although difficult to argue against the introduction of some degree of mechanization, the Bangladesh case demonstrates how to go about planning a strategy for technological change that allows the best possible end result in terms of women's employment. In particular, it shows how sound economic arguments can be made against unnecessarily labor-displacing technologies (automatic rice mills); how schemes can be devised to enable - 95 - women to benefit from, rather than be exploited by, new technologies (rural rice mills); how the need to upgrade traditional technologies utilized by women can be identified and highlighted; and how projects aimed at creating alternative employment opportunities for displaced women can be planned and implemented. It also shows how difficult it is to get beyond the pilot project and to diffuse widely the ideas, techniques, and technologies that can form the basis of thousands rather than tens of jobs. A. Data Base 176. Various elements of information about women are required for developing policies and planning effectively both to promote new oppor- tunities for women's employment, and also to avoid displacing existing ones. An important part of this data base is definition of the socio- economic environment in which those policies and plans operate. In Bangladesh, women's socialization and attitudes, their health, nutrition and capacity to work, their knowledge and skill base, and their spatial mobility are affected by the limitations which society and the prevailing ideology of status place on women. These limitations affect the produc- tivity of women's ongoing economic activities and the supply of female labor for new ones. Since they will influence the ability of women to utilize new opportunities, these limitations must be accommodated in designing employment and income-generating activities. 177. In Bangladesh, the groups identified as most in need of employ- ment are women among the growing class of landless or functionally landless households, and households headed by women. As landlessness increases, - 96 - more and more families become dependent on nonfarm employment and, to survive, need the earnings of several family members, including women. Since the problem of increasing poverty and unemployment is widespread throughout the country, a carefully designed stategy implemented over different time horizons is needed to address it. The data on women would suggest areas of the country to be given priority in allocating resources for projects. Selectivity in the timing and location of projects would also depend on various linkages in the economy, and regional development strategies, as well as on institutional framework, availability of female development agents and/or facilities for training them, and the experience relevant to location and activity gained from previous pilot efforts. 178. The data base would need to describe the work that women do. In this context, work would include those activities usually regarded as domestic work and accorded no economic value, even though as in the case of rice processing at the household level, it clearly adds value. Women will be expected to continue performing these tasks whether or not income- earning possibilities are created, but it is necessary to include them in the analysis, since they preempt a certain amount of women's time and energy; the efficiency of the tasks might be improved, and they may suggest some income-earning trade-off. Another element of women's work would be their own-account efforts to earn income through agriculture-related activities such as raising small animals, vegetable growing, making spices and vegetable-based handicrafts. For these, the employment strategy would propose ways to improve their technical efficiency and organization, marketing, availability of tools and credit, as well as proposing new products. - 97 - 179. The third element of women's work would be those activities for which wages (cash and/or in-kind) are paid. The major off-farm sources with potential for expansion and/or better conditions for women appear to be in small factories, processing agricultural products and manufacturing articles for local consumption, including those linked to agro-processing, and the food-for-work schemes. Recent innovations in the food-for-work schemes, such as to provide year-round employment for women for a cash wage to do road maintenance, suggest that there may be options in this program that have not yet been explored. Further, there would be opportunities for wage employment for female development agents of different levels, including trainers, extension workers, and group promoters who would be needed to implement the employment strategy. B. Current Employment Situation/Trends 180. In the data base, the major sources of off-farm employment for landless women are identified as food processing, rural works, domestic employment, textiles, handicrafts. Industries in which rapidly declining employment rates are being experienced due to technological change include rice processing, gur, jute, textiles. For each industry, investigations covered: -- the nature and extent of mechanization including technical and economic parameters of technologies used; -- the causes of spreading mechanization including private profitability and government policies; - 98 - -- the impact of technological change on output, employment, foreign exchange, income distribution, development of local industry, and technological capacity; and -- attempts to assist women to take advantage of new technology within the industry. 181. From the detailed investigation of mechanization in existing industries, it is possible to estimate the magnitude of the problem in terms of displacement of landless women. In the Bangladesh case, for example, it was found that alternative workplaces providing between 3.5-5 million work days per annum are needed to compensate for jobs displaced by mechanization in rice processing. Planning for alternatives involves three major types of options: assistance to women to maintain a hold on rice processing through provision of credit and training to buy a rice mill or through attempts to improve the efficiency of the traditional dheki technology; -- assistance to women to maintain a hold on other production structures such as oil pressing and gur making, through the introduction of improved technologies (complete with training and credit); -- assistance to women to gain access to a wider range of off-farm activities through identification of needs and markets and implementation of pilot projects aimed at testing the economic viability of involving women's groups in production to meet such needs and markets. - 99 _ 182. The Bangladesh case shows how headway has been made in all three areas. Evidence of replication of successful projects is very limited, but the implementation of projects in the first place is an essential step in proving to policy makers and program directors that women contribute to national development through their involvement in productive activities. C. Policy Implications 183. Research and results of pilot projects are of little value if ways cannot be found of translating them into action on the part of government and other agencies involved in rural development. The Bangladesh case shows how account can be taken of the audience for which an employment strategy is being written. In particular, policy makers are unlikely to repond to requests to create women's employment opportunities just for the sake of it. They will respond, however, if sound economic reasons can be put forward to show that the policies that are displacing women from employment result in a waste of scarce resources and are detrimental in terms of achieving national development objectives. Similarly, more thought will be given to establishing new activities for landless women if proof can be offered of how such activities can make a contribution to the national economy. 184. In the Bangladesh case, the information reviewed herein can be presented as policy recommendations as follows. 185. Bangladesh has a chronic unemployment problem, yet proposals for rice processing technologies have become increasingly capital-intensive: - 100 - (a) Rural hullers displace much female labor and also result in a slightly lower output of rice per maund of paddy than other technologies. However, they use less capital as well as less labor and are profitable even without subsidies. Under the circumstances, they should be neither encouraged nor discouraged; in the latter respect, it should be remembered that even legislation to ban steel hullers in India (so as to encourage supposedly more efficient milling equipment) could not prevent their spread. Since they will continue to be utilized, it would be to society's benefit to investigate ways and means of improving performance. Also, given the increasing cost to society of imported fuel, possibilities of converting rural mills to the use of renewable energy (particularly improved steam engines utilizing rice husks) should be considered. Given that landless women are one of the Government's target groups for development, every effort should be made to extend credit and other assistance to enable them to benefit from, rather than be disadvantaged by, the mechanical efficiency of the mills and/or to enable them to become self-employed in other activities. (b) Commercial mills. In the commercial sector, the number of non-modernized major mills has increased. Automatic mills represent a high cost to society in terms of scarce capital and foreign exchange (for machinery, spares and fuel). They also pose obvious large-scale transport and storage problems which add to their cost to society. Operating costs are much higher than assumed in project proposals because of low capacity utilization. Given the current and sanctioned capacity in the commercial sector, utilization rates of automatic mills is unlikely to rise and their operation will continue to depend on subsidies. Benefits to society in terms of quantity and quality of rice have been much lower than anticipated for a variety of technical and institutional reasons. High quality is in any case, significant when aiming at international markets; and note should be made that the highly priced rice exported from Thailand is milled in traditional rural hullers. Under the circumstances, further investment in automatic mills cannot be recommended. Higher returns can be expected from a strategy of incremental improvement of technology in non-modernized commercial mills. The problem of drying the increasing volumes of wet paddy coming onto the market also needs solution. Investment on improvement to milling and storage facilities in the commercial sector will be wasted if paddy continues to be inadequately dried. - 101 - Since large-scale mechanical dryers have not proved cost-effective, the implications of altering the price differential between procured paddy and procured rice should be explored. This would increase the incentive to provide ready-milled rice; drying would then be handled by surplus farmers and/or small mills, thus increasing the demand for and economic viability of "intermediate" level paddy dryers. (c) Dkeki. Since 60 percent of paddy is husked by women using the dheki, and given the likelihood of its continued use, especially in remote areas, efforts should be made to increase its mechanical efficiency so as to increase the labor productivity of the women using it. 186. Increased agricultural production and plans for crop diversifica- tion offer possibilities for employment and capital formation in rural areas through forward and backward linkages. To maximize these potentially beneficial changes, it is essential that policy towards the choice of technology be rationalized. The purposes of development are unlikely to be served if the demand for improved equipment to overcome bottlenecks in production is met only by imported machinery; or if the demand for more and improved processing facilities is met only by the establishment of large-scale processing plants. The experience with automatic rice mills demonstrates that attempts to promote development through reliance on capital-intensive imported technology can be counter-productive and it is vitally important that similar mistakes are not made in other sectors of the economy. A large range of technologies now exist for most processes and many increase output and improve quality without the disadvantages of large-scale technology in terms of labor displacement and utilization of scarce capital and foreign exchange. Such small/medium-scale technologies are already in widespread use in many countries of the developing world and - 102 - given their proven economic viability, it is strongly recommended that the Government promote their use (after any necessary adaptation to local conditions) in Bangladesh. It is of utmost importance that priority be given to those machines/products that are capital-saving in both use and production and to those technologies which enable economically viable production on a small-scale, decentralized basis. - 103 - ANNEX I Characteristics of Dheki versus Custom Mills Dheki Custom Mill 1. Employment as % of total industrial employment 6 1.3 2. Proprietors owning lass than 1 acre 84.5% 50.4% 3. Proprietors with no formal education-% 81.6 26.8 4. Proprietors for whom industry is primary source of income -% 72.1 57.7 5. Value of Capital Tk 593 Tk 62,584 6. Number of Employees 2.8 3.56 7. Z Family workers 96 37 8. Z Fe-ale workers 56 19 9. Value added per Labor hour Tk 1.14 Tk 5.83 10. Value added per Tk of capital Tk 8.48 Tk 1.18 11. Wage rate - Tk 1.59 per hour 12. Charge for milling paddy - (per maund) - Tk 2.5 - Tk 4.0 13. Extraction rate of rice from paddy 671% 65% 14. Average family income of proprietor Tk 4,235 Tk 42,400 15. Profit rate Negative 74.5Z Source: BIDS Rural Industries Study, 1981 - 104 - Costs. Capacities ad Labor IPAuiremotn for Differeot Rice Proceeeing Operattioe ?iadl31n, (tru) amut ta1 soilat Yartlcal 5.15s C mptT 1 _ 10 amada 20-40 souds cOat Tn 50-75 Tn 2,500 Tn 5 I.000 Labor 1 per 5 tm 1 per 570 tm per m.d. at p,y per To" Teat So- in beo ear r ommA_da to redues o:T. Tr_d__cla_ _ lath D"ro (7 ana p-ir 12 l sm) Capacity 100 ft2 per 2 d Ito 5 to Patl I houn Cost T& 1200 per 700 ft (m coc of 1ud) *7k 10,000 Q aOCtO Labor - Coist4 loms nmglib Volm Tm.r aturs OYstr CapaLt L1/2 to swvezmL toma por boho 20 tea per 24 how Cost Tk 109.000 (Ua. motor) 0.J 71! 7k 105.000 (bc. oil fixd beaear) Labor Tra"tioual 44~~~chubICa. CavacitY 1 md per r 40 esiaut (io.lndd In cot of) COst Tk 3 (mt_LtC dll.1 Labor 2"D1 1 RocY"lo Pestl3e/Mo,rtar naua p.atu Italics C&pAcATY 1 aid par 6 baga ,L m 1 Uu 5 a par day *-poLisin Cost nk ISO 7k 80-100 Tk 150 - nk 350 Labor I v.d. m.d. Steal Inurg (C) seea. tR%Ur (el Steal Sultmr (2) Capaity 5-U.5 mwAja/bz 10-20 maama/b:r 15-25 uawdelhr Cost 10 nk oo 70k .1200 r7 1,600 Labor . 'l0- 1.SDai- +20-25 1V ngu +25-30 V agi Ole IhaUst Rubber IOUl Roller Capeuisy 1/4 co-2 cmasr 1/4 tom to I coulhr Cost nk 14,000 for 3/4 tm Tk 70,000 for 3/4 ctm/br Labor - Com Polisber Rco aim 0a Utraeros Capacty L/2 tom to 2 tom/br 10 to Y toms/d (200 tcos/paddy) Cost 7k 1.800 Labor - Source: Mtinstry of Agrtculture, Roport of Teak Force on Rice Procesectg, 1978. - 105 - Bibliography Abdullah, T. and S. Zeidenstein. 1979. "Women's Reality: Critical Issues for Project Design," in Sondra Zeidenstein, ed., "Learning About Rural Women," Studies in Family Planning, vol. 10, no. 11/12. New York: The Population Council. Ahmad, Perveen. 1980. "Income Earning as Related to the Changing Status of Village Women in Bangladesh: A Case Study." Dhaka: Women for Women Study and Research Group. . 1979. "Critical Issues for Women and Children in Bangladesh," in Situation of Women in Bangladesh. Dhaka: the Bangladesh Institute of Law and International Affairs. Ahmad, Perveen and N. Mahtab. 1978. "Rural Women's Education: A Case for Realistic Policy Making," in Women and Education. Dhaka: Women for Women Study and Research Group. Alauddin, M. 1982. A Survey of Income Generating Employment Creating Activities of 30 NGO, PVOs in Bangladesh. Dhaka: University of Dhaka, Institute of Social Welfare Research. Alauddin, M. and N. Sorcar. 1981. "A Booster for the Rural Poor" (Draft). Dhaka: University of Dhaka. Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (Government of Bangladesh). 1981. Socio-economic Indicators of Bangladesh. Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies. 1981. "Rural Industries Studies Project: Final Report." Dhaka, February 1981. Bangladesh Jute Research Institute. 1980/81. "Socio-economic Assessment of Improved Jute Production Technologies and Identification of Constraints to their Adoption." Dhaka. Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee. 1981. "Rural Credit and Training Project." Annual Report, July-December 1981. Bangladesh Shipla Bank. 1982. "Sectoral Report on the Prospect of Rice Mills in Bangladesh." (Draft mimeo). Begum, Salela and M. Greeley. 1979. "Rural Women and the Rural Labour Market in Bangladesh: An Empirical Analysis." Bangladesh Journal of Agricultural Economics, vol. II no. 2, (December 1979). . 1980 a. "Women, Employment and Agriculture." (Notes from a Bangladesh Case Study). Sussex, England: Institute of Development Studies. . 1980 b. "Cooperatives for Wage-Labour Women: Outline of a Proposal for Integrated Rural Development." Dhaka: Institute of Development Studies/Sussex, England: Institute of Development Studies. - 106 - Cain, Mead, S. Khanam and S. Naha. 1979. Class, Patriarchy and the Structure of Women's Work in Rural Bangladesh. New York: The Population Council, Center for Policy Studies. Chen, Marty. 1981. "Structural Analysis of Women's Work in Rural Bangladesh." Mimeo, prepared for workshop on "Women's Work and Public Policy," sponsored by Women in Develoment: Joint Harvard/MIT Group, February 1981. Feldman, Shelly. 1982. "Silk Production in Bangladesh: Some Social Considerations," ADAB (Agricultural Development Agencies in Bangladesh) News, March/April 1982. Dhaka. Fuller, Rich. 1980. "A Study of Economic Emancipation," ADAB (Agricultural Development Agencies in Bangladesh) News, February 1980. Dhaka. Garg, M. 1980. "Mini Sugar Technology in India." UNIDO Monographs on Appropriate Industrial Technology, No. 8, New York: United Nations Industrial Development Organization. Greeley, Martin. 1982. "Farm Level Post-Harvest Food Losses: the Myth of the Soft Third Option," in M. Greeley, ed., Feeding the Hungry: a Role for Post-Harvest Technology. Sussex, England: Institute for Development Studies, June 1982. . 1981. "Rural Technology, Rural Institutions and Rural Poverty: The Case of Rice Processing in Bangladesh." Paper Prepared for the Post-Harvest Technology Workshop, New Delhi, India: Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), January 1981. Harris, B. 1978. "Rice Processing Projects in Bangladesh: An Appraisal of a Decade of Proposals." Bangladesh Journal of Agricultural Economics, December 1978. Hye, A. Abdul. 1981. "SFDP in Bangladesh." ADAB (Agricultural Development Agencies in Bangladesh) News, June, 1981. Dhaka. Islam, Mahmuda. 1979. "Social Norms, Institutions and Status of Women" in Situation of Women in Bangladesh. Dhaka: The Bangladesh Institute of Law and International Affairs. Islam, Rizwanul. 1979. Some Aspects of Female Employment in Rural Bangladesh. Dhaka: National Foundation for Research on Human Resource Development. Islam, Shamima. 1978. "Non-Formal Education for Women in Bangladesh: Some Selected Lessons and Choices of Strategy," in Women and Education. Dhaka: Women for Women Research and Study Group. _ 1979 a. "Women's Education in Bangladesh: Analysis and Policy Imperatives,' in Situation of Women in Bangladesh. Dhaka: The Bangladesh Institute of Law and International Affairs. - 107 - _ 1979 b. "Strengthening Non-Formal Education for Women in Bangladesh," in R. Jahan and H. Papanek, eds., Women and Development, Perspectives from South and Southeast Asia. Dhaka: The Bangladesh Institute of Law and International Affairs, 1979. . 1981. "Indigenous Abortion Practitioners in Rural Bangladesh."Dhaka: Women for Women Research and Study Group. Kanwal, A.S. 1982. "Improvement of Gur Making Industry in Bangladesh." (Mimeo). Dhaka: Bangladesh Small-Scale and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC). Khalili, M.A.B. and M. Nasruddin. 1981. "Rural Development Strategies in Bangladesh: Focus on Landless Laborers." Dhaka: ADAB (Agricultural Development Agencies in Bangladesh ) News, May/June 1981. Martius von Harder, Gudrun. 1975. "Women's Role in Rice Processing," in Women for Women. Dhaka: Dhaka University Press. Marum, Elisabeth. 1981. Women in Food for Work. Washington, D.C.: United States Agency for International Development. McCarthy, Florence E. 1980. "Employment Projections for Women 1984/85." (Mimeo). Dhaka: Ministry of Agriculture. Ministry of Food, Government of Bangladesh. 1980. Note regarding the installation of rice mills, dated July 30, 1980. Papanek, Hanna. 1973. "Purdah's Separate Worlds and Symbolic Shelter." Comparative Studies in Society and History, vol. 50, no. 3. Qadir, Sayeda Z. 1980. "Women's Development Program. Eighth Report (1977-78)." Comilla: Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development. Rahman, M. 1980. "Pilot Project on Mechanized Paddy Drying: Evaluation Report 1975-79." Comilla: Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development. Rahman, Shireen. 1977. "Twenty-Eight Women and Eighty Birds." ADAB (Agricultural Development Agencies in Bangladesh) News, June 1977. Dhaka. Salahaudin, Khaleda. 1982. "Women in Bangladesh and Income Generating Activities. New Nation, April 13, 1982. Dhaka. UNICEF. 1977. "Feasibility Study of Productive Income-Generating Activities for Women in Bangladesh." Dhaka: UNICEF, Women's Development Program. UNICEF. 1981. Salma Khan, et al., eds., Inventory of Women's Organizations in Bangladesh. United Nations Children's Emergency Fund, Women's Development Unit. UNIDO. 1979. "Appropriate Industrial Technology for Food Storage and Processing." UNIDO Monographs on Appropriate Industrial Technology, No. 7, New York: United Nations Industrial Development Organization. The World Bank. 1980. Rural Employment Mission, February 1984, background working papers. Woltd Bank The Agricultural Development their productivity. Valuable to policy- Experience of Algeria, makers, project designers, rural sociol- PUbkatiOk Morocco, and Tunisia: A ogists, extension workers, and other Comparison of Strategies for agricultural researchers. of Related Growthi 1984. 176 pages. Interest Kevin M. Cleaver ISBN 0-8213-0301-5.Stock No. BK 0301. Compares agricultural experience of $13.50. Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia. Pro- vides insights into the importance of food and agriculture for development, and determinants of agricultural NEW Adoption of Agricultural growth. Agricultural Extension: The Innovations in Developing Staff Working Paper No. 552. 1983. 55 Training and Visit System Countries: A Survey pages. Daniel Benor, James Q. Harrison, Gershon Feder, Richard Just,and ISBN 0-8213-0120-9. Stock No. WP 0552. and Michael Baxter David Siilbermnan $3. Contains guidelines for reform of agri- Staff Working Paper No. 542. 1982. 65 cultural extension services along the pages. lines of the training and visit system. ISBN 0-8213-0103-9. Stock No. WP 0542. The central objective-making the $3. The Agricultural Economy of most efficient use of resources avail- Northeast Brazil able to governments and farmers-is Gary P. Kutcher and Pasquale L. achieved through encouraging and fa- Agrarian Reform aS Unfinished Scandizzo cilitating feedback from farmers to re- Business-the Selected Papers This study, based on an agricultural search workers through extension per- of Wolf Ladejinsky survey of 8,000 farms, assesses the ex- sonnel who visit and advise farmers Louis J. Walinsky, editor tent and root causes of pervasive rural on a regular, fixed schedule, thus Studies in agrarian policy and land re- poverty in northeast Brazil. The au- helping research to solve actual pro- form spanning four decades, grouped thors review a number of policy and duction constraints faced by the chronologically according to Ladejin- project options; they conclude that farmer. sky's years in Washington, Tokyo, and courageous land reform is the only ef- Explains the complex relationships in Vietnam and while at the Ford Foun- fective means of dealing with the training and visit extension and draws dation and the World Bank.Oxford problem. attention to the range of considera- University Press, 1977. 614 pages (in- The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1982. tions that are important to implement- cluding appendixes, index). 288 pages. ing the system. LC 77-24254. ISBN 0-19-920095-5, Stock LC 81-47615. ISBN 0-8018-2581-4, Stock 1984. 95 pages. No. OX 920095, $32.50 hardcover; ISBN No. JH 2581. $25.00 hardcover. ISBN 0-8213-0140-3. Stock No. BK 0140. 0-19-920098-X, Stock No. OX 920098, $5. $14.95 paperback. Agrarian Reforns in Agricultural Land Settlement Developing Rural Economies NEW Theodore J. Goering, coordinating Characterized by Interlinked author Credit and Tenancy Markets Agricultural Extension by Examines selected issues related to the Avishay Braverman and T.N. Training and Visit: The Asian World Bank's lending for land settle- Srinivasan Experience ment and gives estimates of the global Staff Working Paper No. 433. 1980. 32 Edited by Michael M. Cernea, rate of settlement andthe world's ulti- ptages (incluing refereNces. 4319032John K. Coulter, and John F.A. mate potentially arable land. pages (including references). 'Jon .ouer, Russea n A World Bank Issues Paper. 1978. 73 Stock No. WP-0433. $3. nearly ten years of pe pages (including 4 annexes). English, Captures Freach, and Spanish.xne ence with the Training and Visit Ex- French, and Spanish. Agricultural Credit tension System. Addresses five issues: Stock Nos. BK 9054 (English), BK 9055 Outlines agricultural credit practices farmer participation, the research-ex- (French), BK 9056 (Spanish). $5 paper- and problems, programs, and policies tension linkage, training, system man- back. in developing countries and discusses agement, and monitoring and evalua- their implications for World Bank op- bon. Within this framework, extension erations. system managers and evaluators from Agricultural Price Management A World Bank Paper. 1975. 85 pages (in- six Asian countries and six discussants in Egypt cluding 14 annex tables). present their experience and analyses. William Cuddihy Notes the World Bank's strong com- Stock No. BK 9039 (English), BK 9052 mitment to agricultural development Staff Working Paper No. 388. 1980. 174 (French), BK 9053 (Spanish). $5 paper- in its member countries and to helping pages (including annex, bibliography). back. least advantaged farmers to improve Stock No. WP-0388. $5. Agricultural Price Policies and Stock Nos. BK 9074 (English),BK 0160 NEW the Developing Countries (French), BK 0161 (Spanish). $5 paper- George Tolley, Vinod Thomas, and back. Chung Ming Wong Agroindustrial Project Analysis This book first considers price policies James E. Austin AW Point W Intsn in Korea, Bangladesh, Thailand, and Provides and illustrates a framework Venezuela, bringing out the conse- for analyzing and designing agro-in- quences for government cost and reve- dustrial projects. nue, farm income, and producer and . . l l lelole\ consumer welfare. Other effects, in- EDI Seres In Economic Development. cluding those on agricultural diversifi- The Johns Hopkins University Press, cation, inflation, economic growth, 1981.2nd printing, 1983. 224 pages (in- and the balance of payments are also cluding appendixes, bibliography, and discussed. The second part of the book index). provides a methodology for estimating LC 80-550. ISBN 0-8018-2412-5,Stock I 1/ these effects in any country. Opera- No. IH 2412, $16.50 hardcover; ISBN 0- / > \ .\. tional tools for measuring the effects 8018-2413-3, Stock No. JH 2413, $7.50 k l I on producers, consumers, and govern- paperback. . N .) ment are developed and applied. French: L'Analyse des projets agroindus- l The Johns Hopkins University Press. 1982. triels. Economica, 1982. ISBN 1-7178- 256 pages. 0480-3, Stock No. IB 0537. $7.50 paper- Appraising Poultry Enterprises LC 81-15585. ISBN 0-8018-2704-3, Stock back. for Profitability: A Manual for No. JH 2704, $25 hardcover; NEW: ISBN Spanish: Analisis de proyectos agroindus- Potential Investors 0-8018-3124-5, Stock No. IH 3124, $9.95 triales. Editorial Tecnos, 1981. ISBN 84- International Finance Corp. paperback. 309-0882-X, Stock No. IB 0520, $7.50 pa- Decisionmaking tool for entrepreneurs perback. and project managers considering in- NEW vestments in integrated poultry pro- NEW jects. Use this guide to conduct on-site Agricultural Prices in China investigation of proposed project. Fig- Nicholas R. Lardy Alternative Agricultural Pricing ure production costs and determine Analyzes recent adjustments to Policies in the Republic of fixed asset and working capital for China's agricultural pricing systems Korea: Their Implications for broiler operations. Analyze market and and its effects on urban consumers Government Deficits, Income accurately forecast market prices. This and overall production patterns. De- Distribution, and Balance of comprehensive guide tells how to fines price ratios from key inputs and manage integrated broiler operations, outputs and examines price/cost rela- Paymnents gives specifications for broiler and tions in view of the institutional set- Avishay Braverman, Choong Yong breeder houses and summarizes pro.. ting for price policy. Ahn, Jeffrey S. Hammer duction costs. Staff Working Paper No. 606.1983. 84 Develops a two-sector multimarket Technical Paper No. 10. 1983. 110 pages. pages. model to evaluate agricultural pricing ISBN 0-8213-0165-9.Stock No. BK 0165. ISBN 0-8213-0216-7. Stock No. WP 0606. policies, replacing insufficient standard $5 $3. operational methods. Measures the Agricultural Research impact of altemative pricing policies The Book of CHAC: Agricultural Research on production and consumption of rice Programming Studies for Points out that developing countries and barley, real income distribution, Mexican Agricultural Policy must invest more in agricultural re- import levels of rice, self-sufficiency in Edited by Roger D Norton search if they are to meet the needs of nce, and public budget. Provides a their growing populations. Notes that valuable synthesis of the work that has andLeopoldo Soils M. studies in Brazil, India,Japan, Mexico, been done to date on agricultural The principal tool of analysis is the and the United States show that agri- household models. Helps economists sector model CHAC, named after the cultural research yields a rate of return evaluate the impact of alternative pric- Mayan rain god. This model can be that is more than two to three times ing policies aimed at reducing deficits. used throughout the sector to cover greater than returns from most alter- Based on the experience of the Grain short-cycle crops, their inputs, and native investments and cites some of Management Fund and the Fertilizer their markets. It can also be broken the successes of the high-yielding vari- Fund in Korea. down into submodels for particular lo- eties of rice and wheat that were de- Staff Working Paper No. 621. 1983. 174 calities if more detailed analysis is re- veloped in the mid-1960s. Discusses pages. quired. The model helps planners the World Bank's plans to expand its ISBN 0-8213-0275-2. Stock No. WP 0621. weigh the costs among policy goals, lending for agricultural research and T5. which can vary from region to reeion. extension, particularly for the produc- This volume reports the experience of tion of food and other commodities Argentina: Country Case Study using the CHAC model and also pre- that are of importance to low-income of Agricultural Prices, Taxes, sents purely methodological material. consumers, small farmers, and re- and Subsidies The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983. source poor areas. Lucio G. Reca 624 pages (including maps, bibliographies, Sector Policy Paper. 1981. 110 pages (in- Staff Working Paper No.386. 1980. 72 index). cluding annexes). English, French, and pages (including 3 annexes). LC 80-29366. ISBN 0-8018-2585-7, Stock Spanish. Stock No. WP-0386. $3. No. JH 2585. $35 hardcover. Building National Capacity to The Design of Rural Economic Aspects and Policy Develop Water Users' Development: Lessons from Issues in Groundwater Associations: Experience from Africa Development the Philippines Uma Lele Ian Carruthers and Roy Stoner Frances F. Korten Analyzes new ways of designing rural Staff Working Paper No. 496. 1981. 110 Staff Working Paper No. 528. 1982. v + development projects to reach large pages (including annex, bibliography). 69 pages (including references). numbers of low-income subsistence Stock No. WP-0496. $5. ISBN 0-8213-0051-2. Stock No. WP 0528. populations. The third paperback $3. ~~~~~~~~printing contains a new chapter by the Economic Return to Investment author updating her findings. in Irrigation in India Bureaucratic Politics and The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975; Leslie A. Abbie, James Q. Incentives in the Management 3rd printing, 1979. 260 pages (including Harrison, and John W. Wall of Rural Development glossary, appendix, maps,bibliography, in- Staff Working Paper No. 536. 1982. 52 Richard Heaver dex). pages. ISBN 0-8018-1769-2, Stock No. JH 1769, ISBN 0-8213-0083-0. Stock No. WP 0536. Analyzes management problems in $9.95 paperback. $3. implementing rural development from a bureaucratic political standpoint. French: Le developpement rural: 1'experi- Farm Budgets: From Farm Emphasizes the need to take account ence Africaine9Economica, 1977, ISBN 2- g of informal interests in managing pro- 7178-0006-9, Stock No. lB 0545, $9.95 Income Analysis to grams. Suggests possible methods for paperback. Agricultural Project Analysis assessing incentives. Maxwell L. Brown assessing incentives. ~~Economic Analysis of Clarifies the relation between simple Staff Working Paper No. 537. 1983. 74 Agricultural Projects farm income analysis and the broader pages. Second edition, completely revised field of agricultural project analysis ISBN 0-8213-0084-9. Stock No. WP 0537. and expanded and emphasizes the more practical as- $3. J. Price Gittinger pects of project preparation. Gives Sets out a careful and practical meth- guidance to those responsible for plan- NEW odology for analyzing agricultural de- ning in agriculture. velopment projects and for using these EDI Series in Economic Development. The Common Agricultural analyses to compare proposed invest- The Johns Hopkins University Press, Policy of the European ments. It covers what constitutes a 1980. 154 pages. Community: A Blessing or a "project," what must be considered to LC 79-3704. ISBN 0-8018-2386-2,Stock Cutse for Developing identify possible agricultural projects, No. JH 2386, $15 hardcover; ISBN 0- the life cycle of a project, the strengths 8018-2387-0, Stock No. JH 2387, $6.50 Countries? and pitfalls of project analysis, and the paperback. Ulrich Koester and Malcolm D. calculations required to obtain financial Spanish: Presupuestos defincas. Editorial Bale and economic project accounts. Tecnos, 1982. ISBN 84-309-0886-2, Stock Examines the importance of the Euro- The methodology reflects the best of No. IB 0522, $6.50 paperback. pean Community (EC) in global agri- contemporary practice in government cultural trade. Points out that the EC agencies and international develop- Fishery is the leading importer of agricultural ment institutions concemed with in- Highlights the importance of fisheries goods and is the dominant exporter of vesting in agriculture and is accessible to the economies of developing coun- a number of agricultural products. Em- to a broad readership of agricultural tries and recommends that the World phasizes that policymakers in develop- planners, engineers, and analysts. Bank provide assistance to those coun- ing countries must understand the im- This revision adds a wealth of recent tries that have the fishery resources plications of the EC's common project data; expanded treatment of and are willing to develop them fur- Agricultural Policy. Spells out how this farm budgets and the efficiency prices ther. policy operates and categorizes impor- to be used to calculate the effects of an Sector Policy Paper.1982. tant commodities. investment on national income; a glos- ISBN 0-8213-0138-1. Stock No. BK 0138, Staff Working Paper No. 630. 1984. 64 sary of technical terms; expanded ap- $5 paperback. pages. pendixes on preparing an agricultural Stock No. WP 0630. $3. project report and using discounting Forestry tables; and an expanded, completely Graham Donaldson, coordinating The Design of Organizations annotated bibliography. author for Rural Development EDI Series in Economic Development. Examines the significance of forests in Projects: A Progress Report The Johns Hopkins University press. July economic development and condludes William E. Smith, Francis J. 1982. 2nd printing, March 1984. 528 that the World Bank should greatly in- Lethem, and Ben A. Thoolen pages (including appendixes and glossary! crease its role in forestry development, Staff Working Paper No. 375. 1980. 48 index). both as a lender and adviser to gov- pages. English and French. LC 82-15262. ISBN 0-8018-2912-7, Stock ernments. Stock Nos. WP 0375 (English), BK 9241 No. JH 2912, $37.50 hardcover; ISBN 0- Sector Policy Paper. 1978. 63 pages (in- (French). $3. 8018-2913-5, Stock No. IH 2913, $13.50 cluding 7 annexes). English, French, and paperback. Spanish. Spanish: Analisis economico de proyectos Stock Nos. BK 9063 (English), BK 9064 Prices subject to change without notice agricolas. Editorial Tecnos, S.A. ISBN 84- (French), BKL 9065 (Spanish). $5 paper- and may vary by country. 309-0991-5. $13.50. back. major policy options open to the pages (including 3 annexes, appendix, NEW World Bank in this field. map). Forestry Terms--Terminologie A World Bank Paper. 1975. 73 pages (in- Stock No. WP-0332. $5. forestiere cluding 2 annexes). Monitoring and Evaluation of English-French; Francais- Stock No. BK 9042. $5 paperback. Agriculture and Rural Anglais. Land Tenure Systems and Development Projects Presents terminology related to for- Social Implications of Forestry Dennis J. Casley and Denis A. estry development and erosion control Development Programs Lury in arid and semiarid lands. Since fuel- Michael M. Cernea This book provides a how-to tool for wood problems and desertification the design and implementation of have become serious, particularly in Staff Working Paper No. 452. 1981. 35 monitoring and evaluation systems in Westem Africa, the World Bank has pages (including references, bibliography). rural development projects. Because become increasingly involved in wood- Stock No. WP-0452. $3. rural development projects are com- based energy and erosion-control and plex, they seek to benefit large num- in forest-management projects. Assists NEW bers of people in remote rural areas, translators and researchers who work and they involve a variety of invest- in this field. ments. The need for monitoring and A World Bank Glossary-Glossaire de M* e evaluating them during implementa- la Banque mondiale 2watt,td tion has been accepted in principle, 1984. 48 pages. __ but effective systems have not hereto- ISBN 0-8213-0175-6. Stock No. BK 0175. fore been formulated. The concepts of $5. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~monitoring and evaluation are differ.- $5. 1 llzq-entiated and issues that need to be .*~ ,considered in designing systems to Improving Irrigated ] monitor and evaluate specific projects Agriculture: Institutional ,v . are outlined, emphasizing the timeli- Reform and the Small Farmer ness of the monitoring functions for Daniel W. Bromley effective management. Elaborates on Staff Working Paper No. 531. 1982. 96 such technical issues as selection of in- pages.__________________ dicators, selection of survey methodol- pages. ogy data analysis, and presentation. It ISBN 0-8213-0064-4. Stock No. WP 0531. Managing Elephant is directed primarily to those working $3. Depredation in Agricultural with specific projects and will be use- India: Demand and Supply and Forestry Projects ful to project appraisal teams, to de- Prospects for Agriculture John Seidensticker signers of monitoring and evaluation procdure formanaing le- systems, and to project staff who work James Q. Harrison, Jon A. Outlines procedures for managing ele- with these systems. Hitchings, and John W. Wall phants in and around project areas as The Johns Hopkins University Press. 1982. Staff Working Paper No. 500. 1981. 133 part of the project design. Helps prha - Th 145 pages. pages (including 5 appendixes, references, ect designers plan activities that will15pgs pannex) (including 5 appendixes,references, protect wildlife and prevent financial LC 82-7126. ISBN 0-8018-2910-0, Stock annex). loss from damage by animals. Ilus- No. IH 2910. $8.50 paperback. Stock No. WP-0500. $5. trates methods used to investigate ele- Monitoring Rural Development phant behavior and ecology. Notes that careful scheduling of project activ- m East Asia Irrigation Management in ities is required to ensure that ele- Guido Deboeck and Ronald Ng China: A Review of the phants are not isolated in production Staff Working Paper No. 439. 1980. 91 Literature areas. pages (including annexes). James E. Nickum Technical Paper No. 16. 1984.50 pages. Stock No. WP-0439. $3. Analyzes irrigation management in the ISBN 0-8213-0297-3. People's Republic of China. Major top- Stock No. BK 0297. $3. NEW ics covered are the institutional envi- ronment, the organizational structure, Managing Information for Monitoring Systems and water fees and funding, and water al- Rural Development: Lessons Irrigation Management: An location. The report is based on Chinese-language materials published from Eastern Africa Experience from the in China and now available in the Guido Deboeck and Bill Kinsey Philippines United States. Staff Working Paper No. 379. 1980. vii + Agricultural economists, planners, and Staff Working Paper No. 545. 1983. 106 70 pages (including 5 annexes, index). field workers will find this 1983 case pages. Stock No. WP-0379. $3. study report a practical guide for de- ISBN 0-8213-0110-1. Stock No. WP 0545. signing efficient monitoring and evalu. $5. Measuring Project Impact: ation systems for irriation and similar Monitoring and Evaluation in projects. It illustrates the practical ap- Land Reform the PIDER Rural Development plication of the principles covered in the 1982 publication Monitoring and Examines the characteristics of land re- Project-Mexico Evaluation of Agriculture and Rural De- form, its implications for the econom- Michael M. Cernea velopmnent Projects. Highlights the prob. ies of developing counties, and the Staff Working Paper No. 332. 1979. 137 lems as well as the successes. 1983. 162 pages. . - World Bank Staff Working Paper No. 387. permitting a full social cost-benefit ISBN 0-8213-0059-8. Stock No. BK 1980. 108 pages. analysis of the project. 0059,$S5. Stock No. WP-0387. $5. The Johns Hopkins University Press. 1982. 336 pages (including maps and index). NEW Project Evaluaton in Regional LC 81-48173. ISBN 0-8018-2802-3, Stock Perspective: A Study of an No. JH 2802, $30 hardcover. Oppoilunities for Biological Irrigation Project in N6rthwest Control of Agricultural Pests in Malaysia - Rethinking Artisanal Fisheries Developing Countries Clive Bell, Peter Hazell, and Roger Development: Western D. J. Greathead and J. K: Waage Slade Concepts, Asian Experiences Describes how to use living organisms This innovative study develops quanti- Staff Working Paper No. 423. 1980.107 as pest control agents, either alone or tative methods for measuring the'di- pages (including references). as one component of pest manage- rect and indirect effects of agricultural Stock No. WP-0423. $5. ment. Biological control offers hope of projects on their surrounding regional long-term-permanent-results, causes and national economies. These meth- Rural Development no pollution, poses no risk to human ods are then applied to a. study of the Discusses strategy designed to extend health and is often cheaper than Muda irrigation project in northwest the benefits of development to the ru- chemical controls. Gives methods and Malaysia. A linear programming ral poor and outlines the World Bank's costs. Specifies controls for specific model is used to analyze how .a project plans for increasing its assistance in crops found in developing countries. changes the farm economy, and a so- this sector. Technical Paper No. 11. 1983. 55 pages. cial accounting matrix of the regional Sector Policy Paper, 1975., 89 pages (in- - ~~~~~economy is then estimated. 'This.pro- cluig1 nee) ISBN 0-8213-0164-0.- Stock No. BK 0164. . vides the basis for a semi-input-output ludmg 14 annexes). $3. model, which is used to estimate the Stock No. BK 9036. $5 paperback. Subsidies-in indirect effects of the project on its re- Prices, Taxes, and Subsidies-in gion. Thereafter, a similar method6l-. Pakistan Agriculture,1960-1976 ogy is used to estimate the project's' NEW Carl Gotsch and Gilbert Brown effects on key national variables, thus -__ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ Rural Financial Markets in Developing Countries NEW J. D. Von Pischke, Dale W. Adams, and Gordon Donald Rural Development in China Selected readings highlight facets of Rura Deelpmn in ,Ch.ina.... rural financial markets often neglected Dwight-H.. Perkins and Shahid Yusufruafinclmrktotengetd in discussions of agricultural credit in developing countries. Considers the Looks at China's rural development China's rural development policy. performance of rural financial markets experience as a whole since 1949. Ana- Helps clarify both the strengths and and ways to improve the qualitv and lyzes China's agricultural performance weaknesses of a self-reliant strategy range of financial services for low-in- and tiaces it back to the technology of rural development. come farmers. Also reflects new think- and other sources that made that per- ing on the design, administration, formance possible. Goes beyond the ' ; evaluation, and policy framework of conventional sources of growth analy- . rural finance and credit programs in sis to examine the political and organi- . developing countries. zational means that enabled the i . .- -- The Johns Hopkins University Press. 1983. Chinese to mobilize so much labor for ! .- . 430 pages. development purposes. . s ,-, . . ISBN 0-8018-3074-5.Stock No. JH 3074. Describes the successes and failures of $32.50 hardcover. ~ -6S. _ rRural Poverty Unperceived: . . -,< W _ l Problems and Remedies - < ~ ~_-.v . -, jK - - n Robert Chambers .g -; . 1 . Auesr 2- t';x -t. . *Staff Working Paper No' 400. 1980. 51 pages (including references). -",4jr ;r. ^ .s. * .-.. ^Stock No. WP-0400. $3. - - " 5 SX - ~ a Rural Projects through Urban Eyes: An Interpretation of the World Bank's New-Style -Rural Development Projects The Johns Hopkins University Press. 1984. . > 'f Judith Tendler 232 pages. - World Bank Staff Working Paper No. 532. LC 83-049366. ISBN 0-8018-3261-6. Stock . . | *,, 1982. 100 pages. No. JH 3261. $25 hardcover. * |''= . ISBN 0-8213-0028-8.Stock No. WP 0532. $3. NEW most important determinant of overall ISBN 0-8213-0168-3. Stock No. WP 0561 NEW economic growth, has been sluggish in (English) $3. Sheep and Goats in Sub-Saharan African countries during ISBN 0-8213-0269-8. Stock No. BK 0269 Sheep an oa sXthe past two decades. This ovefview (French) $3. Developing Countries: Their takes a three-pronged approach to un- Present and Potential Role derstanding the problems of agricul- Winrock International Livestock tural production in the 47 countries Research and Training Center that make up the region. It outlines NEW Sheep and goats are viewed as an in- domestic and global constraints; sum- tegral component of complex agricul- marizes price, trade, and consumption Training and Visit Extension tural systems. This comprehensive forecasts for major agricultural exports; Daniel Benor and Michael Baxter analysis leads to recommendations on and project trends. Contains a comprehensive explanation the need for a balanced production Staff Working Paper No. 608. 1983. 172 of the organization and operation of system approach for research, training, pages (including more than 75 tables and the training and visit system of agri- and development programs. Assesses charts). cultural extension. Emphasizes sim- the role of sheep and goats in food ISBN 0-8213-0221-3.Stock No. WP 0608. plicity and decisiveness. Defines or- production systems by examining ad- $5. ganization and mode of operation and vantages and disadvantages, aid/donor allows continuous feedback from farm- support, constraints on contributions, ers to extension and research workers. and overcoming constraints. Empha- A System of Monitoring and This method has been adopted in sizes the need for a combination of Evaluating Agricultural some 40 countries in Asia, Africa, Eu- support activities and marketing and Extension Projects rope, and Central and South America. pricing poiisfor small ruminants PrjcsUseful to extension staff at all levels, and their products Revew onging Michael M. Cernea and Benjamin agricultural research personnel, train- projects. J. Tepping ers, and staff of agricultural organiza- Technical Paper No. 15.1983. 109 pages. Staff Working Paper No. 272. 1977. 122 tions, as well as universities and train- ISBN 0-8213-0272-8. pages (including 9 annexes, bibliography). ing institutions involved in agricultural Stock No. WP-0272. S5. and rural development and public ad- Stock No. BK 0272. S5. ministration. Sociocultural Aspects Thailand: Case Study of ISBN 214 pages. ofDeveloping Small-Scale Std fISBN 0-8213-0121-7.Stock no. BK 0121. Fisheries: Delivering Services Agricultural Input and Output $15. to the Poor Pricing Richard B. Polinac Trent Bertrand Sta Working Paper No. 490. 1981. 64 Staff Working Paper No. 385. 1980. 143 Women and the Subsistence Stnff cing refereNc. pages (including 2 appendixes). Sector: Economic Participation pages No. referenceS3. Stock No. WP-0385. $5.NEW and Household Stock No. WP-0490. $3. Decisionmaking In Nepal Some Aspects of Wheat and Traditional Land Tenure and Meena Acharya and Lynn Bennett Rice Price Policy in India Land Use Systems in the al, demosgrapahysicsodf the omplex so- Raj Krishna and G.S. Design of Agricultural Projects tors that affect women's decisionmak- Raychaudhuri . Raymond Noronha and Francis J. ing role in the subsistence sector. Data Staff Working Paper No. 381. 1980. 62 Lethem collected from seven villages show pages (including 2 appendixes, 6 tables, The feasibility of agricultural projects women play a major role in agricul- bibliography). and their intended impact are often tural production, both as laborers and Stock No. WP 0381. $3. determined by traditional patterns of managers. Bringing women into the tenure and land use. This paper pro- market economy would make better vides agricultural project designers use of local resources and improve NEW with an analytical basis and rationale their status and economic security in for examining svstems and suggests Nepal. Sub-Saharan Agriculture: how to use' such information in de- Staff Working Paper No. 526.1983. 160 Synthesis and Trade Prospects signing projects. pages. Shamsher Singh Staff Working Paper No. 561. 1983. 54 ISBN 0-82Z3-0024-5. Stock No. WP 0526. Agricultural production, the single pages. $5. 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