| dc.description | Sites. Five focus group discussions (FGD) were organised in two sites of Assela (Dosha Gura, Haro Belalo and Shalla Chebete villages), and in Hawassa (Dore Bafeno, Tulla and Wondo Genet villages) on April 22-25, 2014. These FGD are part of the Farm Mechanisation and Conservation Agriculture for Sustainable Intensification (FACASI) Project baseline study. Project goal and study objective. FACASI seeks to improve access to mechanisation, reduce labour drudgery, and minimise biomass trade-offs (i.e. competition for biomass between the livestock and the soil), through promotion and adoption of two wheel tractor-based technologies. It is being implemented in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. The objective of this FGD was to map power demand trends, by studying forms of drudgery and sources of power in Assela and Hawassa, Ethiopia. Study approach. Each FGD had two parallel gender-segregated sessions each consisting of 8-14 women or men. Participants were sampled based on their farming experience and contextual knowledge on mechanisation. Data were generated through participants’ valuation of mechanisation percentages, frequencies of tasks, and discussions on the local meaning of drudgery, estimation of trends of mechanisation, constraints, animal feed changes and mechanisation opportunities among men and women farmers. Further participatory analyses were done through combined women and men sessions, to encourage debate and in-depth reflection over the gathered data. Findings. Data from these FGD exercises show lowest mechanisation among women-dominated tasks. This includes tasks one with animal draft, except for water fetching that is dominated by women. Findings show that in spite of drudgery related imbalances among women and men, there were interrelatedness in household tasks. Level of women labour drudgery was often directly dependent on how well men performed their tasks. For instance, when tillage was efficiently done, there was less weeding, if transport was organised well by men women would travel less to fetch water, decent construction ensured grain storage was adequate. However, chores mainly done by women were often routine and more frequent, with minimum use of appropriate equipment, less animal power and least mechanisation. Ethiopian farmers also pooled resources? i.e. teamed up oxen and labour esp. when individual households did not own complete spans of draught animals. | |
