1. The Impact of Caregiving of Rural Women on Agricultural Production Liqin Zhang College of Economics and Management China Agricultural University

2. Introduction Left-behind women and agricultural feminization, Women as important food and cash-crop producers –Estimates from the FAO show that women account for more than half the labor required to produce the food consumed in the developing world. –In China, more than half agricultural labors are women 59% in 2009 (Linxiu Zhang, 2011) 50.4% in 2009, 51.5% in 2012 (working days, data of Rural Fixed Observation Office)

3. Introduction Care of household members – Unpaid care work – Work directed toward meeting the needs of children,the eldly, and the sick and disabled, particularly in relation to children, are time- intensive – Including direct care work and indirect care (Folbre, 2006) Direct care: feeding, bathing Indirect care : preparing food, doing laundry, cleaning, collecting wood or carrying water – Domain of women, regarded as women’s responsibility

4. Introduction How does caregiving affect agricultural labor supply & production? – Supply of labor to agriculture: does it change the amount, or composition of labor supply to agriculture? Hypothesis: It elevates agricultural labor supply? – Impact on agricultural production Do we see evidence that household structure/ composition affects farm production choice? How does burden of care work affect earnings from agriculture, returns to labor?

5. Data The data set will be used in this research was collected by Rural Fixed Observation Office (RFOO), the survey department of the Rural Center for Rural Economy (RCRE), a research unit affiliated with the China Ministry of Agriculture. The survey unit designed and administered one of the most comprehensive farm household surveys in China over the past 20 years. The samples of this paper include 8000 rural households and about 32000 individuals from 9 provinces from 2003-12. The provinces include Shanxi, Liaoning, Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi, Guangdong, Sichuan, Yunnan and Shaanxi.

6. Table 1 Average Working days by gender in rural area WomenMen FarmNon-farmFarmNon-farm 200395 85107 200496 85155 2005939784155 2006879977160 20078010772165 20087710170162 20097610568165 Especially after 2007, rural woman’s farm working days decrease significantly as men, but are still higher than men’s. Summary Statistics

7. Table 2 Average agricultural labor input of rural households in 2009 (days) 9 provinces 3 provinces (Anhui, Jiangxi and Sichuan, migarating-out) MeanStd. Dev.MeanStd. Dev. Female109.15145.93101.28124.03 Male107.26144.1595.39113.33 Obs82693111 In 9 sample provinces, average female agricultural labor input per household is about more 2 days than male’s, 50.4% of total agricultural labor. In Anhui, Jiangxi and Sichuan which are 3 of top ten migrating-out provinces, average female agricultural labor input is about more 6 days than male’s, 51.5% of total agricultural labor. Summary Statistics

8. HH with kid's age<=2HH with kid's age<=12 HH with the elderly HH with the sick Withwithoutwithwithoutwithwithoutwithwithout Female Farm177.3117.4123.1118.4147.5116.4137.6114.7 Off-farm139.1159.1130.5177.0162.8157.4129.4167.4 Male Farm132.298.992.6105.9131.895.9111.796.9 Off-farm271.4234.0214.1250.7222.0237.8202.0246.8 Care responsibility may reduce the possibility of nonfarm labor participation. Women with more “care” responsibility are stuck in agricultural production. Table 3 Average labor input of rural households with wife aged 25-45 ( work days)

9. hh with kid aged 0-2hh with kid age 3-12hh with the elderlyhh with the sick Withwithoutwithwithoutwithwithoutwithwithout area(mu)5.46.25.96.37.26.06.1 sown area(mu)4.65.45.15.57.35.16.15.2 production(kg)1856.52027.01879.72114.02343.51971.62074.22000.8 yield(kg)408.3415.4411.2417.6406.3416.5391.6424.2 revenue per mu(yuan) 714.8716.3715.7716.6724.5714.9669.1734.6 fetiliser per mu(yuan) 107.6105.6106.4105.3111.8104.7109.0104.5 pesticide per mu(yuan) 22.521.420.921.824.121.019.822.1 irrigation per mu(yuan) 8.911.711.811.511.411.69.412.5 machine service per mu(yuan) 35.739.738.840.045.738.539.739.4 labor input per mu (days) 16.418.117.018.816.818.215.818.9 Table 4 Care and food production (Hh with wife aged 25-45) The houshold with more “care” responsibility has less productivity Summary Statistics

10. RiceCorn Ln(labor)Coef. Ln(area)0.731***0.731***0.649***0.259*** Ln(wage)-0.311***-0.312***-0.215***0.458*** Ln(price of pesticide )-0.142***-0.141***0.011-0.120*** Ln(price of fertiliser)0.0010.000-0.039*0.022 Ln(hhdsize)(>=15)0.088**0.070*0.202***-0.035 Female labor ratio in agriculture0.105*0.096*0.234***0.203* Husbandedu-0.0010.0000.0070.001 Husbandage-0.0010.000 Wifeedu-0.002 -0.021***0.036*** Wifeage-0.001 Kid(<=5)-0.0030.023 Kid(6-14)0.065**-0.022 The sick-0.006-0.027 The elderly(>=70)-0.008-0.053 Village kindergarten (yes=1) -0.234***0.139*** F test for Demographic Characteristic 1.81 (.09) 1.72 (.09) 7.81 (.00) 2.85 (.00) No. of observations1433 1245685 Table 5 Demand for Labor Depend variable: Log person days employed(p values for F tests) HH composition have effect on labor demand. Preliminary Estimation Results

11. Gap of agricultural productivity between female-managed farm and male- managed farm restricted profit function avoiding endogeneity Preliminary Estimation Results

12. Rice (food crop)Corn (cash crop) Coef.t t -0.029-0.550.0891.99 0.0461.640.0321.52 0.499110.0110.37 0.93250.751.00253.85 EDU0.0571.61-0.018-0.51 EXT0.0691.340.0481.11 provincecontroled No.ofobservations15631619.000 Adj r-sq0.7290.796 Table 6 OLS estimatimation of profit function Corn productivity of female-maintained farm is slightly less than male-maintained farm. Preliminary Estimation Results

13. Findings Caregiving burden reduce women nonfarm labor participation significantly and let them stuck in agriculture Intensive care giving work depressing the time of rural women, especially for left-behind women, will affect agricultural productivity. Female-maintained farm is less productive than male-maintained farm in corn production