The food crisis last year prompted government to implement food rationing and feeding programs to help the poor cope. This year, government beefed up the welfare budget, focusing in particular on conditional cash transfers and food subsidies especially for so-called families at risk as additional measures to mitigate hunger. But the effectiveness of these welfare programs in addressing the needs of rural families has yet to be investigated. What is clear is that more rural families are eating less today.

It is true that government allocated about one-fourth or PhP2.5 B of the economic stimulus fund on food production. But the implementing mechanism remains vague and it is unclear whether the program addresses the basic concerns of the small farmers and fishers. The budget of the Department of Agriculture has also been substantially increased, but the agency's credibility is haunted by a slew of scams, non-transparency and lack of accountability.

But even more basic to the issues raised is how relevant the programs and policies (e.g. providing welfare and production support) are to the concerns of women in agriculture, who  are at the core of food provisioning.  More importantly, are our policy makers even aware about who these women are?  Unfortunately, there is only scant official agricultural data on women food producers and these are insufficient to describe their status. This apparent invisibility of women food producers in official statistics and industry profiles inevitably translates into their invisibility in rural development processes, programs and ultimately, budgets.

The findings of Centro Saka's Survey on Women in Agriculture (2008) indicate that sixty percent of the survey's 1,194 respondents exercised sole decision-making in their family households over what food to prepare for the family. This affirms the important role that women play in food security. This was also underscored in the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). In Article 14 of CEDAW, state parties, such as the Philippine government, are mandated to consider and address "the particular problems faced by rural women and the significant roles which they play in the economic survival of their families, including their work in the non-monetized sectors of the economy."

These women in agriculture spend as much as eight to eleven hours a day in productive and reproductive work—i.e. acquiring capital for farming (usually through credit), carrying out planting activities, marketing the primary crop and backyard produce, and providing for their household's daily survival needs. They spend from one to six hours daily for domestic work, which includes activities like preparing farm tools and food for farm laborers, fetching water, gardening, foraging, wood gathering, raising poultry and livestock, and other livelihood activities. During the off-season, the women in agriculture spend more time in domestic chores, as well as augmenting cash income and ensuring food for their households.

However, the women also face various obstacles in conducting their role in household food provisioning and farming. The daily realities that these women face are further nuanced by what crop they produce and by their level of access or control over the means of production.

A fourth of the respondents have multiple statuses, i.e. they are at the same time small owner cultivators and workers. Presumably, they are compelled to undertake different tasks because they need additional sources of income for the survival of their households. Hence, the survey showed that there are as many farm workers (38 percent) as small owner cultivators (40 percent). 

What is sad is that only 24 percent of those belonging to small-owner cultivator households said that their names were included in the land titles. Among tenant households, only 23 percent said that women were also recognized as tenants. Meanwhile, the women farm workers are paid lower wages averaging PhP19.40 less than the men.

Of the 110 women land title holders, those from the grains sector comprised almost half (i.e. 26% for rice and 20% for corn sector respondents). Those from the coconut sector composed 19 percent, and those from the high value crops (HVCs) comprised the following: sugar and vegetables sector comprised 15 percent each and the onion sector comprised 5 percent. The survey respondents from the grains and coconut sectors indicated a capacity to decide on matters in their areas of responsibility (i.e. when to plant, what crop varieties to use, where to sell). Meanwhile, the women in the HVC sectors indicated that participation in decision making is difficult because they lacked control over productive resources. This suggests that social hierarchies, as defined primarily by property ownership, could affect decision-making processes on production concerns.

Often, the women in agriculture carried out decision making roles under conditions of marginal access to resources and services. Only one-third of the respondents have access to production services Less than one-fourth have access to seeds, calamity assistance, training and extension services. And less than a tenth have access to production capital. Less than half of the respondents have social security; and only thirty percent are members of women's organizations. Among the top personal aspirations of the respondents was to provide at least three meals a day for their families. 

The conditions mentioned above are just some of the challenges faced by women in agriculture, who still carry the burden posed by conditions of inequality and scarcity in the rural areas. A careful analysis of these conditions suggests possibilities for transformation, towards policy interventions and full realization of the women's aspirations.

The data gathered should prompt government and development stakeholders to review mechanisms involving women as individual players in rural development. At the very least, the food production program being crafted under the economic stimulus fund should take into consideration the concerns, the rights and the roles of the women in agriculture. Doing so would go a long way towards improving efforts to make our nation food secure.