




































Ecology, Economy and Society–the INSEE Journal 2 (2): 125–127, July 2019 

 
REPORT 
 

Seeds of Change: Report from a Conference on 
“Gender Equality through Agricultural Research for 
Development”  
 

Barbara Pamphilon  
 
In a small Australian city, two researchers were talking together about 
research approaches in their shared field of passion - gender-focused 
agricultural research for development. They dreamt that one day they would 
see an international conference that brought together the many innovators 
and scholars in this important field. Two years later this dream was realised 
at the ‘Seeds of change: Gender equality through agricultural research for 
development’ conference held at the University of Canberra, April 2-5, 
2019.1 The conference achieved many things, not the least of which was to 
provide an interactive and intellectually stimulating environment for the 280 
participants from 45 countries. 

Although gender equality and gender equity are now ‘mainstreamed’, in 
reality many gender-focused researchers in agriculture are relatively isolated 
and have few opportunities to challenge and extend their thinking and 
practice. The conference sought to address this issue and to provide fruitful 
ground and opportunities for cross-fertilisation. The conference highlighted 
ways of successfully integrating gender into project design and 
implementation. It focused on effective ways to catalyse social and 
behavioural change for both agricultural and social outcomes; gender-
sensitive evaluation and impact assessment systems for continuous program 

                                                           
 Faculty of Education, University of Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia; 
Barbara.pamphilon@canberra.edu.au 

Copyright © Pamphilon 2019. Released under Creative Commons Attribution-
NonCommercial 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC 4.0) by the author.  

Published by Indian Society for Ecological Economics (INSEE), c/o Institute of Economic 
Growth, University Enclave, North Campus, Delhi 110007.  

ISSN: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). 

DOI: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i2.83  

1 The conference was jointly sponsored by the Australian Centre for International 
Agricultural Research, the CGIAR Collaborative Platform for Gender Research and the 
University of Canberra. More information can be accessed from the Conference website: 
https://www.canberra.edu.au/research/faculty-research-centres/aisc/seeds-of-change 

https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i2.83
https://www.canberra.edu.au/research/faculty-research-centres/aisc/seeds-of-change


Ecology, Economy and Society–the INSEE Journal [126] 

improvement; and gender transformative approaches to the adoption of 
innovative technologies. The conference demonstrated the essential place 
of interdisciplinarity and the need for new epistemologies that do justice to 
the complex challenges of the Global South. 

Gender integration in agricultural research to-date has tended to focus on 
the production domain with relatively scant knowledge and systematic 
learning about the integration of gender within a broader agri-food system 
perspective. The implications of rapidly transforming agri-food systems and 
of development investments in gender equality/equity on gender gaps and 
opportunities, as well as what those mean for food security, health and 
nutrition, and livelihoods of vulnerable groups were a focus of the 
conference. Large disparities in nutrition and health outcomes between 
different social groups, and how these intersect with gender was a further 
theme. As a result, how social categories such as age, caste, class, ethnicity, 
race, and religion, create differences in health and nutrition outcomes and 
processes were made visible. 

The relationships among gender, agricultural productivity, and rural 
transformation was a common theme. Whilst rural transformation may be 
occurring due to outmigration of particular groups, improved 
infrastructure, increased access to public services, and new opportunities 
both in the agricultural and non-agricultural sectors, gender relations both 
influence these processes of rural transformation and are changed by them. 
Here, the conference sought to answer whether women were empowered 
by taking over new roles when men migrate or are they further burdened by 
additional responsibilities and through limited access to resources.   

This consideration of labour and production relations was further deepened 
by the challenging questions that must be asked as more men move out of 
rural areas, and more women must take greater roles in agriculture within 
various resource constraints. Are they transforming the ways in which 
production has been carried out conventionally, while transforming 
themselves? What are the directions of these gendered changes? How are 
labour and production in farming altering? What factors are driving these 
changes? Who is benefitting and in what ways? What are the implications of 
these dynamics? 

It is increasingly being recognised that focussing only on women is 
insufficient to overturn the norms that entrench gender inequality. In the 
context of agriculture, for example, divisions of labour and the control of 
income from cash crops have usually privileged men at the expense of 
women. Changes in rural economies have a profound impact on both men’s 
and women’s lives. Increasing reliance on cash crops, the migration of men 
for work and the thrust for gender rights are impacting across the world on 



[127] Barbara Pamphilon 

 

men’s roles in rural communities. Whether such changes have caused a 
‘crisis of masculinity’ and contributed to pernicious forms of masculinity 
was examined. 

The conference challenged participants to consider several ‘messy’ 
questions:  

(i) What are we measuring when we measure impact? How and why 
does change happen when it happens? What is missing from the 
economic empowerment agenda? [Keynote speaker, Naila Kabeer, 
London School of Economics] 

(ii) What works to ensure equitable access to the technologies, services 
and knowledge generated by agricultural development investments? 
How do we build the on-ramps for more equitable participation in the 
new opportunities that emerge with agricultural transformation? 
[Keynote speaker, Vicki Wilde, Gates Foundation] 

(iii) Is there more that unites us than divides us across gender, racial 
and religious lines? Could it be that current academic structures and 
intellectual paradigms mitigate against seeking commonality and rather 
emphasize difference leading to division? [Keynote speaker, Jayne 
Curnow, ACIAR] 


