Aderanti, O and Zanello, G and Ravula, P and Kasala, K and Srinivasan, C S (2025) Women’s Greater Participation in Agriculture: Implications for Energy Expenditure, Time Use, and Nutrition from a Case Study in Telangana, India. The Journal of Development Studies, 62 (6). pp. 891-913. ISSN 0022-0388
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Several aspects of rural transformation in LMICs call for greater participation by women in agriculture. However, empirical evidence does not show a clear link between greater participation by women in agriculture and improved nutritional status. This paper examines two key nutrition impact pathways – changes in energy demands and time-use patterns due to increased participation in agriculture. The study is based on data collected from rural agricultural households across agricultural seasons in Adilabad District, Telangana State, India. A novel aspect of the study is the use of accelerometers for energy expenditure assessments. Our findings show that increased participation by women in agriculture leads only to modest rises in energy demand and physical activity levels, as agricultural tasks are not much more energy-intensive than the domestic/care activities they replace. Increased energy expenditure due to more time spent on agricultural activities is generally offset by higher calorie intake, with no significant impacts on calorie adequacy. However, increased participation in agriculture significantly changes women’s time-use patterns, reducing time for domestic work, leisure, and care, which may affect nutrition and wellbeing. Impacts on nutrition and wellbeing are more likely to arise from changes in time-use patterns than from increased energy demands of agricultural work.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Divisions: | Research Program - Transforming Agrifood Systems |
| CRP: | UNSPECIFIED |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Women in agriculture, feminisation, time use, energy expenditure, nutritional outcomes, low- and middle-income countries |
| Subjects: | Others > Agriculture Others > Food and Nutrition Others > Agricultural Economics |
| Depositing User: | Mr Nagaraju T |
| Date Deposited: | 11 Nov 2026 09:32 |
| Last Modified: | 11 Nov 2026 09:32 |
| URI: | http://oar.icrisat.org/id/eprint/13717 |
| Official URL: | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00220... |
| Projects: | UNSPECIFIED |
| Funders: | UNSPECIFIED |
| Acknowledgement: | This study was conducted jointly by the University of Reading, UK and the International Crop Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Hyderabad, India under a grant from the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) for a project entitled ‘Through the Looking Glass: Applying a Gender Lens to Agricultural Transformation, Labour Intensification and Nutrition Outcomes in LMICs’. Ethical clearance for the study was granted by the Research Ethics Committee of the School of Agriculture, Policy and Development, University of Reading UK vide approval number 1091D dated 22/07/2019. The data collection for this project was undertaken by Dr Padmaja Ravula, ICRISAT and her team. The data set used for analysis in this study is available from Mendeley Data https://doi.org/10.17632/59t4k3cdt2.1. The econometric estimation codes are available from the authors on request. |
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