The third myth is that the feminization of agriculture has negative consequences for agricultural production. It claims that women are less productive farmers than men and thus, as men move out of agriculture, and production will decrease.
Simple comparisons frequently find that productivity – whether measured as production value, profit value or crop yield – is lower on plots managed by women than on those managed by men (Aguilar et al., 2014; Ali et al., 2015; Backiny-Yetna and Mcgee, 2015; Mugisha et al., 2019; Palacios-López and López, 2015; Quisumbing, 1996; Slavchevska, 2015; Tamang et al., 2014; Udry, 1996). This finding is then extrapolated to suggest that if women are less productive farmers, and if farms are increasingly managed by women, overall agricultural output will decrease.