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Women’s empowerment in agriculture and productivity change: The case of Bangladesh rice farms

Author

Listed:
  • Mohammad Hasan Mobarok
  • Theodoros Skevas
  • Wyatt Thompson

Abstract

Using productivity change as a measure of farm economic performance, we analyze the relationship between women’s empowerment in agriculture and farm productivity change and its components, which include efficiency change, technological change, and scale efficiency change. A non-parametric Malmquist approach is used to measure farm specific productivity change and its decomposition. We use a bootstrap regression to analyze factors that cause differences in productivity change and its components, testing, in particular, the role women’s empowerment plays. The empirical application focuses on a sample of Bangladesh rice farms over the crop cultivation period 2011 and 2014. Results suggest that improvements in women’s empowerment in agriculture were associated with higher levels of productivity change, efficiency change, and technical change, while they had no impact on scale efficiency change. We find that empowering women, specifically, improving their ability to make independent choices regarding agricultural production had a statistically significant positive association with productivity change, efficiency change, and technical change. We also find that lowering the gender parity gap is positively related with improving productivity of the sample farms.

Suggested Citation

  • Mohammad Hasan Mobarok & Theodoros Skevas & Wyatt Thompson, 2021. "Women’s empowerment in agriculture and productivity change: The case of Bangladesh rice farms," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(8), pages 1-21, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0255589
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0255589
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    1. repec:qeh:ophiwp:ophiwp058 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. repec:wbk:wbpubs:6603 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Alkire, Sabina & Meinzen-Dick, Ruth & Peterman, Amber & Quisumbing, Agnes & Seymour, Greg & Vaz, Ana, 2013. "The Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 71-91.
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    Cited by:

    1. Li, Wei & Kafle, Kashi, 2024. "Agricultural Sales in Sub-Saharan Africa: Does Farmer's Gender Matter?," 2024 Annual Meeting, July 28-30, New Orleans, LA 343585, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    2. Mkupete Jaah Mkupete & Jorge Davalos, 2025. "Implications of climate‐smart agriculture technology adoption on women's productivity and food security in Tanzania," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 56(2), pages 247-267, March.
    3. Theodoros Skevas & Jasper Grashuis, 2023. "Evaluating dynamic productivity change of US farm supply cooperatives," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(4), pages 1238-1253, October.
    4. Sadika Haque & Md. Salman & Md. Mehedi Hasan & Aunjuman Ara Prithi & Md. Emran Hossain, 2024. "Women's empowerment and its role in household food security to achieve SDGs: Empirical evidence from rural Bangladesh," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(4), pages 4297-4314, August.

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