The Impact of Caregiving of Rural Women on Agricultural Production

1. The Impact of Caregiving of Rural Women on Agricultural Production Liqin Zhang College of Economics and Management China Agricultural University

2. Introduction • Left-behind women and agricultural feminization, Women as important food and cash-crop producers • Estimates from the FAO show that women account for more than half the labor required to produce the food consumed in the developing world. • In China, more than half agricultural labors are women • 59% in 2009 (Linxiu Zhang, 2011) • 50.4% in 2009, 51.5% in 2012 (working days, data of Rural Fixed Observation Office)

3. Introduction • Care of household members • Unpaid care work • Work directed toward meeting the needs of children ,the eldly, and the sick and disabled, particularly in relation to children, are time-intensive • Including direct care work and indirect care (Folbre, 2006) • Direct care: feeding, bathing • Indirect care : preparing food, doing laundry, cleaning, collecting wood or carrying water • Domain of women, regarded as women’s responsibility

4. Introduction • How does caregiving affect agricultural labor supply & production? • Supply of labor to agriculture: does it change the amount, or composition of labor supply to agriculture? • Hypothesis: It elevates agricultural labor supply? • Impact on agricultural production • Do we see evidence that household structure/ composition affects farm production choice? • How does burden of care work affect earnings from agriculture, returns to labor?

5. Data • The data set will be used in this research was collected by Rural Fixed Observation Office (RFOO), the survey department of the Rural Center for Rural Economy (RCRE), a research unit affiliated with the China  Ministry of Agriculture. The survey unit designed and administered one of the most comprehensive farm household surveys in China over the past 20 years. • The samples of this paper include 8000 rural households and about 32000 individuals from 9 provinces from 2003-12. The provinces include Shanxi, Liaoning, Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi, Guangdong, Sichuan, Yunnan and Shaanxi.

6. Summary Statistics Table 1 Average Working days by gender in rural area Especially after 2007, rural woman’s farm working days decrease significantly as men, but are still higher than men’s.

7. Summary Statistics Table 2 Average agricultural labor input of rural households in 2009 (days) In 9 sample provinces, average female agricultural labor input per household is about more 2 days than male’s, 50.4% of total agricultural labor. In Anhui, Jiangxi and Sichuan which are 3 of top ten migrating-out provinces, average female agricultural labor input is about more 6 days than male’s, 51.5% of total agricultural labor.

8. Summary Statistics Table 3 Average labor input of rural households with wife aged 25-45 ( work days) Care responsibility may reduce the possibility of nonfarm labor participation. Women with more “care” responsibility are stuck in agricultural production.

9. Summary Statistics Table 4 Care and food production (Hh with wife aged 25-45) The houshold with more “care” responsibility has less productivity

10. Preliminary Estimation Results Table 5 Demand for Labor Depend variable: Log person days employed(p values for F tests) HH composition have effect on labor demand.

11. Preliminary Estimation Results • Gap of agricultural productivity between female-managed farm and male-managed farm restricted profit function avoiding endogeneity

12. Preliminary Estimation Results Table 6 OLS estimatimation of profit function Corn productivity of female-maintained farm is slightly less than male-maintained farm.

13. Findings • Caregiving burden reduce women nonfarm labor participation significantly and let them stuck in agriculture • Intensive care giving work depressing the time of rural women, especially for left-behind women, will affect agricultural productivity. • Female-maintained farm is less productive than male-maintained farm in corn production