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Household Labor Issues in West Asia and North Africa

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Labor and Rainfed Agriculture in West Asia and North Africa

Abstract

The term “peasant household” evokes the image of a man directing his own labor and that of his wife or wives and children, caring for stock or working the earth for subsistence, and sharing the burdens and rewards of family farming. Often, little more than this stereotype serves as the basic unit of analysis for micro-level economic studies and the diagnostic work of farming systems research. Simplicity is its attraction. The household is treated as a well-defined entity with a locus, assets, and a labor force. It is concrete; one can count households, list residents, record activities. Internal dynamics such as decision making are not as apparent, but the assumption that households are coresident units in which the members pool their resources to cooperate in production and consumption discounts the need to analyze the process in detail. It is enough to interview one competent adult member to understand household problems, strategies, and goals. As a consequence, much aggregated household data represent the opinion and knowledge of a single individual within each economic unit. Such data are presented as a powerful representation of local level economic processes and the basis for socioeconomic comparisons and policy recommendations across West Asia and North Africa (WANA).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), P.O. Box 5466, Aleppo, Syria

    Dorene R. Tully

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  1. The International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), Aleppo, Syria

    Dennis Tully

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Tully, D.R. (1990). Household Labor Issues in West Asia and North Africa. In: Tully, D. (eds) Labor and Rainfed Agriculture in West Asia and North Africa. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-0561-0_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-0561-0_4

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