Women in rural-urban exchange : implications for research and intervention identification

One of the most significant variances lies in the mobility of marketers. Males travel more than two and a half times as far as females to purchase inputs and are much more likely to operate in markets outside Kutus. Females, being largely responsible for the household and family farm, are constrained primarily to local markets for both selling and purchasing activities. Although this constraint limits female earnings, women"s local spending patterns are critical to regional employment and enterprise opportunities. Conversely, while male marketers generate larger revenues (200% more than females), their non-local spending represents a loss of potential income to the region. Additional variances identified by the report include commodity type (most women deal in food-related commodities, while most males sell non-food items) and the amount of start-up capital (males" exceeds females" by over 250%). According to the report, development interventions should respond to the different needs of male and female marketers; road investments, for example, should not be targeted toward the marketing of crops produced predominantly by males. Guidelines are provided for incorporating gender analysis into A.I.D."s research framework for rural-urban exchange (RUE), which assesses income-generating and -multiplication processes.