Women's contribution in South Asian agriculture is far greater than men but despite this fact, their role remains unacknowledged and unappreciated. Agricultural workers are the lowest paid employment segment in South Asia, and women receive the lowest compensation within this sector. When small holdings exhibit declining returns, farmers replace hired male labour with female household members who work as unpaid helpers.

Women are deprived of their legitimate landownership rights and are the victims of discrimination and violence by men, according to a report on Human Development compiled by Mahbubul Haq Human Development Centre, an Islamabad based research institute. Most women work as unpaid agricultural workers or as 'family helpers' with their male members on feudal or large landholdings where only males are paid. In Agricultural Census of Pakistan, the definition of full-time agricultural workers includes only those who perform agricultural work exclusively. Women are not considered full-time workers according to this definition, not because they do too little but because they do too much of both household and agricultural work. Often, these definitions classify women as 'supplementing' the work carried out by men, which is defined as 'actual work'.

In their varied roles as agricultural labourers, de jure landowners, de facto household heads, or as managers of their homesteads, women are active participants in the agriculture section. They participate in all operations - livestock management, crop production, sowing, transplanting, weeding, harvesting, threshing, winnowing, drying, grinding, husking, storage, etc. Unlike their male counterparts, their tasks are not only limited to agricultural activities. They are also responsible for fetching and managing water and fuel, cooking, cleaning, maintaining the house and taking care of the young and old.

In Nepal, on an average, women work for 12 hours, 47 per cent higher than men who work for eight hours on an average. In Sri Lanka, women perform over 70 per cent of all agricultural activities. In India, women constitute one half of the labour in rice cultivation. Women's responsibilities related to livestock vary across regions. In 90 per cent of the families, indoor jobs related to livestock management such as milking, feeding, cleaning of animal sheds are done by women while management of animals and fodder production are tasks performed by men.

In Sri Lanka, a major percentage of women work as rubber and tea estate workers mainly because of the employment opportunities offered by activities such as tea-leaves-plucking. In Nepal, a distinction is observed where women from Tibeto-Burman groups are less socially bound and more occupationally active than their Indo-Aryan counterparts, especially those belonging to the Terai communities. In Nepal some activities, especially detecting illnesses of animals, are women's responsibilities. In Bangladesh, women feed livestock, clean sheds, secure them properly for the night, take care of the animals' health and collect farmyard manure. In Bhutan, both men and women perform most tasks together but women tend to look after smaller stock especially poultry.

In Pakistan, women make the feed, collect fodder, clean animals and their sheds, make dung cakes, collect manure for organic fertilisers, pump milk, process animals' products and market them. They also play a crucial role in rural poultry farming where they apply their own methods of rearing and breeding. But then overall, agricultural activity rates may vary from one region to another as in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Balochistan, the socio-cultural norms are more binding and less female participation is observed. Women also play an important role in dairy production. In Pakistan, for instance, all fresh milk consumed in the country with the exception of a few large cities, is based on small domestic productions, run and managed by women.

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In Sri Lanka, women's groups are now looking towards cow rearing for milk production as a self employment activity that not only results in additional income but also in improved household nutrition. Within livestock management, women in general have greater control over decision-making and also their own sources of income.

In Nepal, women have the right to own livestock and men market livestock in consultation with them. In Bangladesh, women are consulted before buying and selling cattle. In Pakistan, income from poultry, sheep and goats is often the only source of income completely within their control. It is estimated that 89 to 90 per cent of the women who earn income from livestock products control the expenditure of this income. In India, however, women have less control over the income generated for livestock activities. For instance, only 14 per cent of the dairy cooperative members are women whereas the rest is controlled by men.

In Nepal, tasks performed exclusively by women, such as weeding and harvesting, home gardening, livestock and poultry rearing and fuel and water collection, are not considered as 'economic activities', and are therefore excluded from the labour force surveys. Thus women are officially perceived and recorded as only 'family helpers', and not as economic contributors to agricultural products and productivity.

Women are mostly denied their right to own land. The infringement of rights may take on various dimensions: legal, social or monetary, which essentially leave women landless. Even where women may hold legal titles to land, they effectively lack control over it or the revenues it generates. In Punjab, Pakistan, a 1996 survey of 1000 households in rural areas discovered that only 36 women owned land in their own name while only 9 had the power to sell or trade their land without obtaining prior permission from their male relatives. In Nepal also, within all communities, the control of land rests with men.

Under specific religious laws, women are entitled to smaller shares than men. Islamic law in South Asia (and some Christian sects) provides for a half share for daughters. Even when women inherit land, certain additional conditionalities may be attached. In Nepal, only unmarried daughters above the age of 35 can inherit land. In some cases, women are prohibited from selling their inheritance. Under Maluki Ain in Nepal, women need the prior consent of male family members before selling their inherited, geographically immobile property.

In Sri Lanka, 89 per cent of female unpaid 'family workers' toil in agriculture, forestry and fishing. In other instances, when landless women seek employment on other farms they are met with low demand. In general, their tasks are low paid. In India's rural areas, female-intensive activities, such as weeding, are paid less than male-intensive activities.

A study found that in the more developed district of Karnal, Haryana, women received 12 rupees a day (0.2 US$) for weeding while men received 28 rupees (0.46 US$). In the threshing season, women receive 20 - 25 rupees in contrast with men who receive 40 - 60 rupees. In Pakistan, women in rural areas are paid 59 per cent of what men receive. Their counterparts in Bangladesh fare better in the agricultural sector where they are paid 71 per cent of what men are paid. This is in violation of the ILO Convention, ratified by Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan, advocating 'equal remuneration for men and women workers for equal value'.

The solution to these issues require affirmative action on the part of policymakers within governments; international agencies and NGOs. Women should be included not only in the planning and designing of gender-sensitive development programmes but their input should be integrated in all agricultural projects pertaining to credit, fertiliser, pesticides, water, land reform, fuel-energy, marketing, institutional development and research. Recognising women's worth as economic producers is not only imperative for gender-equality but also to achieve larger South Asian objectives for higher economic growth, poverty alleviation and human development