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MANDI II Agricultural Livelihoods Diaries: Drudgery and Harmful Tradeoffs

Through the Walmart Foundation-funded Market Access eNabled by Digital Innovation in India Phase 2 (MANDI II) project, Grameen Foundation USA (GFUSA) and its Indian subsidiary, Grameen Foundation India (GFI) (together, Grameen), received funding to strengthen Farmer Producer Organizations (FPO) in the Purvanchal region of Uttar Pradesh (UP) and West Bengal, India. A series of monthly surveys (“diaries”) were completed with 30 FPO member households with one man and one woman from two FPOs in UP—AKPCL and Bankelal Bio Energy—resulting in 60 individuals interviewed. In addition to quantitative data collected over the twelve months of study, findings from the third and tenth surveys were leveraged to understand drudgery and harmful tradeoffs of working in agriculture among study participants.

The results highlight that both genders experience physical and mental hardship due to labor-intensive tasks, but men generally report higher levels of strain or injury. While men report having a knowledge of tools and technologies that would help reduce the burden of their work, and that some are currently used, most are limited in accessing them or choose not to access them. Women tend to engage more in household responsibilities alongside their agricultural duties and express less satisfaction with control over household work. For both women and men, balancing the myriad responsibilities they have is a challenge, but most feel that they can satisfactorily do so. The findings also highlight that agricultural seasons play a large role in dictating daily schedules, sleep patterns, and time spent working on the farm. These are also impacted by extreme heat, as high temperatures dictate when, how long, and in what conditions individuals work in the field (i.e. what coping methods are used to mitigate heat). In peak harvesting and planting seasons, children are sometimes pulled out of school to assist on the farm.