But men control the resources.

• Position: Rural women - Includes related article on UN Sec-Gen's report on women

Although rural women play critical roles in households and national food security, much of their contribution is unrecognized and unpaid. Women farmers produce up to 80 per cent of the food in some countries, but they only receive 2 to 13 per cent of extension services. Women are the major produce, and preparers of food; they generate income to facilitate access to food; and they ensure that household nutritional requirements are met and, by doing this, protect the health of children and other members of the family. Still, the men are the ones who control the resources, even when they are not the primary source of household income. These are some of the conclusions in the report of the Secretary-General on the improvement of the situation of women in rural areas, which was published on 8 September 1997, and examines issues (which the importance is growing for rural women: their role in agriculture and food security; access to productive resources; female heads of households and migration; and decision-making.

AGRICULTURE: access to technology limited

From country to country and even regionally, the roles of women in agriculture vary, but most of their labour is in unpaid subsistence production and their contributions tend to be underestimated, according to the results of the Secretary-General's report. Depending on circumstances, they have complementary roles with men, sharing or dividing tasks in the production of crops, care of animals and forestry management. In sub-Saharan Africa, for example, women contribute 60 to 80 per cent of labour in food production for both household consumption and sale, while in Malaysia the women account for only 35 per cent of the agricultural labour force and in Ireland the participation rate is only 10.4 per cent. Although women make this important amount of labour contributions to agricultural production, "development policies tend to favour export crops to earn foreign exchange and the agricultural research tends to address the improvement of production and technologies for commercial production". This results in limited access for women to technical knowledge and innovations, including irrigation, machinery, farming techniques and extension services. This is strengthened by the fact that most of the extension services target farmers who own land and can obtain credit to invest in input and technology.

'Genderalizations'

Although many developing countries have legally affirmed a woman's right to own...