Women's and Men's Work: The Production and Marketing of Fresh Food and Export Crops in Papua New Guinea

Abstract

Fresh food markets have been a fixture of the social and economic landscape of urban and rural PNG since colonial times. They were often the first points of engagement with the market economy, especially for women, who as small‐scale producers, sold surplus produce from their food gardens located on communally‐owned land. Although local food markets have remained an important livelihood for women, the later adoption and expansion of perennial export cash crops like coffee and cocoa overshadowed food production for local markets as men dominated export crop production on land alienated from communal ownership for decades or permanently. New forms of social relations of production and more exclusive forms of land tenure emerged to accommodate export crop production that were very different from those governing the production and marketing of fresh food. Market values and a trend towards individualisation of production with less capacity to mobilise labour through reciprocal labour exchange networks have characterised export crop production. With the income benefits captured largely by men, women began redirecting their labour to fresh food production where they were able to exercise more control of production and income while still mobilising labour through indigenous labour exchange arrangements. Attempts by men to appropriate the income of women and sons’ labour in export cropping were greater during flush periods when income levels were high, and they were less likely to attempt to appropriate this income in low crop periods when incomes were lower. However, with the recent emergence of female entrepreneurers earning relatively large sums of money in large‐scale, profit‐driven vegetable production, the moral frameworks governing food production are coming to resemble those governing export crops, and making labour more difficult to mobilise. Despite women being key players in these changes, we argue there is an emerging risk that men will attempt to assert control over this income or move into vegetable production themselves and possibly marginalise women in the process.

Gendered differences in crop diversity choices: A case study from Papua New Guinea

“…This study thus adds to the literature by revisiting past research on gender and crop diversity in Oceania (Howlett 1962;Sillitoe 1981;Brookfield 1991), much of which took place before major socio-economic changes with implications for crop diversity, such as the spread of large-scale marketing (Benediktsson 2001;Curry et al 2019) and mobile telephony and associated connectedness (Watson 2011). It also broadens understanding of gender and crop diversity more generally: understanding gendered motivations and viewpoints can help policymakers anticipate how programs and initiatives will be received by different types of farmers.…”

“…(It is commonly reported that men in highlands towns spend considerable amounts of their coffee earnings on non-food expenses such as gambling, alcohol, or betel nut or ceremonial exchanges; see e.g., Eves and Titus 2017;Curry et al 2019. ) Marketing is not only a source of income but also of identity.…”

“…Amid these challenges, agricultural extension services have struggled to properly serve the female population (Mikhailovich et al 2016). Recent work has highlighted how PNG society continues to change rapidly, sometimes overturning the norms and customs documented in prior research (Busse and Sharp 2019;Curry et al 2019).…”

Livelihoods, leadership, linkages and locality: The Simbo for Change project

“…Income generation in the Solomon Islands subsistence sector is based on a gendered division of labour where men do contribute to gardening and other work but women commit more of their time and have additional responsibilities (Scheyvens, 2003; McKinnon et al ., 2016; see also recent work by Barnett‐Naghshineh, 2019 and Curry et al ., 2019 on Papua New Guinea). As the island's main gardeners and weavers, women are the principal earners of cash income on Simbo.…”

Marketplaces and Morality in Papua New Guinea: Place, Personhood and Exchange

“…Male ideology rendered men out of place sitting in the marketplace. But as marketplace vending is increasingly recognised as a good source of money, and men have sought to re‐enter the marketplace as vendors, they have also felt the need to present alternative moral justifications for belonging there (Barnett‐Naghshineh 2019; Curry et al 2019).…”