Faithin Omaha eBook Collection

Download or read book Impact of Migration on Agricultural Gender Labor Division and Food Security in Tajikistan written by Tinusha Ghimire and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In recent decades millions living in low-income countries like Tajikistan, have migrated to support their livelihoods. In 2019 alone, over 530,800 Tajik citizens left the country seeking better employment opportunities. This massive, predominantly male, out-migration has transformed the agricultural sector and food security in Tajikistan. On the one hand, non-migrating household members, usually female and children, must replace the migrant member's previous tasks, leading to the feminization of agriculture. On the other hand, remittances could increase income of the migrant household leading to reduction in their work and increase in their food security as their purchasing power strengthens. We want to explore this linkage between migration, gender labor division and food security by comparing migrant and non-migrant households. However, estimators comparing migrant and non-migrant households will be biased because migration depends on unobserved factors that affect both the decision to migrate and our outcome variables of interest. To mitigate such bias, we use Propensity Score Matching (PSM), which enables the measurement of an average treatment effect on the treated (ATT) by matching migrant and non-migrant households in accordance with observable characteristics. The data we use in this paper was collected by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) in 2016. It is a nationally representative dataset with a total of 1920 households. Since this study focuses on migrant and non-migrant households, amongst the 1,920 households surveyed, 904 households had one or more member(s) who migrated in 2015. These households are categorized as migrant households. Our results show in households that own kitchen plots, non-migrant households face more months of food shortage and take more measures to mitigate food shortage, statistically significant at the 1 percent level. However, these results are not consistent when comparing households that own president plots and Dehkan farms. In terms of gender labor division, women in migrant households are more involved in cleaning irrigation canal, setting up irrigation system, guiding irrigation water flow, deciding amount of irrigation water to use and when to apply irrigation water, all statistically significant at the one percent level among kitchen plot owners. However, again, these results are not consistent for presidential plot and Dehkan farm owners. On presidential plots, women from migrant households are more likely to speak with the irrigation service provider, statistically significant at 5 percent level. Women from migrant households that own Dehkan farm were more likely to purchase agricultural inputs, statistically significant at one percent level. Overall, the results provide evidence of the feminization of agriculture in Tajkistan. This paper contributes to the ongoing migration literature in three ways. First, while previous studies have examined the link between migration and household labor allocation, this study focuses on labor tasks surrounding water management in Tajikistan. Second, this study adds to existing research on food security and remittances by analyzing food security conditions in migrant and non-migrant households through experience-based household food insecurity. Third, this is the first study we are familiar with that analyzes gender labor division and food security within the same household as combining these two concepts together can offer a comprehensive and broader understanding of migration on food security conditions in rural households. Furthermore, we analyze all of these interactions and linkages in three types of land or production system in Tajikistan -kitchen plot, presidential plot and Dehkan farm"--