By Jonathan L. Mayuga
MORE than half of women in agriculture receive no pay, and those who do receive 15 percent less than their male counterparts, the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) said.
Rafael Mariano, chairman of KMP, said millions of women farmers in the country suffer the double burden of landlessness and oppression against women. KMP issued a statement in time for the celebration of International Working Women’s Day on March 8.
KMP said that, although a significant number of women in the countryside take part in agriculture production, they are often reduced as “mere statistics” of unpaid family workers.
“The dire situation of women farmers is worsened by landlessness and other exploitative conditions, including high land rent, expensive cost of production, lack of government support and subsidy to production, and lack of access to basic social services like health care and education. Women farmers also suffer from discrimination and sexual abuse,” Mariano said.
Citing government data, Mariano said that out of 4.3 million unpaid family workers in family-operated farms or businesses, 2.4 million, or 57 percent, are women.
Meanwhile, based on estimates released by the National Federation of Peasant Women or Amihan, five of 10 women working in agriculture do not receive any pay. Amihan said children working in farms and plantations also suffer the same fate.
Worse, women farmworkers receive 15 percent lower wages compared to their male counterparts, the group reported. “Women farmers are the face and living proof of rural poverty. As long as landlessness persists, women farmers will not be freed from the shackles of poverty enslaving them,” Mariano said.
Mariano took a jab at women presidentiables Grace Poe and Miriam Defensor-Santiago, who have yet to lay down their concrete platforms that will address the demands of women farmers. KMP said these demands include the implementation of a genuine agrarian reform.