Women smallholder farmers growing horticultural crops

Publication date: 06-10-2025
Extent: 22 pages

Contributions by: Francis Denisse McLean-Rodríguez and Arie Sanders, Zamorano University, Honduras

Chapter synopsis:

Gender-sensitive analysis is critical to understanding women's roles in agrifood systems. However, studies typically portray agrifood systems as mechanistic entities controlled by macro level structuring forces. In this chapter, we apply a new materialist perspective to examine how farmers from the Association of Renewed Intibucan Women affect or are affected by horticultural crops. We analyze the relations that integrate the assemblage of women and horticulture, the affects that draw these relations together, the capacities produced or constrained, and the emerging micropolitics and long-lasting dis/advantages. We find that, by relying on available resources, horticulture crops enhanced AMIR member’s capabilities to fulfill their roles, while strengthening their position in their households and defending their right to occupy feminist spaces, in a way that other economic activities might not have made possible. This examination emphasizes the significance of contextual knowledge to guide the design of development interventions to support women and mitigate inequality.

DOI: 10.19103/AS.2024.0148.26