The traditional farming techniques that women predominantly use include mixed or polyculture (intercropping various crops at the same time); crop rotation; cover cropping (planting crops not for harvesting but to preserve the soil or prevent erosion); mulching; and integrated animal-crop farming. They use organic manure, fallowing and agroforestry. They also tend to use hand-held tools like a hoe and digging stick instead of animal-driven or mechanised ploughs since these require less upper-body strength and physical power. Traditional soil conservation practices include mulching using compost, straw, sand, sawdust, wood chipping and leaves. Modern mulching uses plastic products.

Modern agricultural systems and practices include:

• the use of greenhouses or a structure that uses transparent materials — for example, glass or netting — that filter the light and heat of the sun and also protect against the full force of the rain. This type of structure can assist in regulating climatic conditions, such as temperature and humidity.
• hydroponics, in which plants are grown in water infused with nutrients instead of in soil.
• aquaponics, which combines rearing fish in tanks and using the water infused with fish waste in a hydroponics system for watering plants.
• vertical farming or stacking plants on a vertical structure instead of on a large, single-level surface.

Traditional conservation actions include replanting trees (reforestation) and preserving genetic diversity. Modern actions include:

• trickle and drip irrigation.
• watershed management.
• adding bio-charcoal to increase soil fertility and crop productivity.
• planting genetic material to mitigate climate change and extreme adverse conditions — for example, disease-resistant plants, flood-tolerant species of rice and drought-tolerant species of dasheen (now being grown in Guyana); or plants able to grow in high temperatures (for example, tea in Sri Lanka and tomatoes in Mauritius).
• applying chemicals to the soil that allow crops to grow on salt-affected soils that have been flooded by the sea or affected by scarce rainfall (for example, in the Middle East).
• applying organic fertiliser and organic pesticides to reduce the negative effects of pollution through chemical seepage into the soils and into the ground water. This also reduces the amount of GHGs released into the atmosphere (currently used in pineapple farming in Costa Rica).

Many of these techniques have been shown to increase productivity and offer greater resilience to the impacts of climate change.

In the picture above, the farmer, Belia Sikelohe from Malawi, practises conservation techniques such as eliminating traditional ridge-and-furrow tillage systems, keeping crop residues on the soil, and rotating or intercropping maize with other crops. These techniques reduce the labour and costs involved. The improved soil structure is also resistant to erosion and increases water infiltration and retention, a huge benefit when drought threatens in Malawi, where maize farming usually depends on rain alone as its water source.

Many people therefore choose traditional agriculture practices as sustainable alternatives to industrialised production methods and as a means for protecting diversity (see Dahlin & Svensson, 2021, for more information).

Some women-led businesses in the eco-tourism industry have been successful in using traditional practices to conserve natural resources while also providing economic benefits to themselves and their local communities (see Akhter et al., 2013, for more information).

Reading

Akhter. S., Alamgir, M., Sohel, S. I., Parvez, R. Ahmed, M., & Chowdhury, M. S. H. (2013). The role of women in traditional farming systems as practiced in homegardens: A case study in Sylhet Sadar Upazila, Bangladesh. Tropical Conservation Science, 3(1), 17-30. doi: 10.1177/194008291000300103

Licence: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence

Dahlin, J., & Svensson, E. (2021). Revitalizing traditional agricultural practices: Conscious efforts to create a more satisfying culture. Sustainability, 13(20),11424. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132011424

Licence: Open access

Some disadvantages of modern agriculture techniques

Some modern-day agricultural techniques designed to increase profits and reduce the amount of hard, physical labour required have led to monoculture — that is, large fields are planted with the same crop to allow for mechanised harvesting, etc., by large machines and equipment. Such farming systems have resulted in over-tillage of the soil, loss of crop genetic diversity, overuse of fertilisers and pesticides and pollution from chemicals leeching into the soil and underground wells. Large-scale monoculture — for example, the production of grain for export, animal feed or conversion into biofuel — means that land is not available for traditional domestic food production in which more women are engaged. For some women who are both small farmers and responsible for their household, the increased amount of management time needed for large-scale production is an added burden.

The beneficiaries of mechanisation tend to be wealthier men who can afford the machines and equipment. Labour-saving equipment is too costly for many farmers, and so they cannot benefit from modernisation. Such technological interventions risk contributing to or increasing the inequalities between large and small farmers and to increasing the gender gap.