In most societies, men and women differ in the activities they undertake, in access and
control of resources, and in participation in decision-making. Regarding the access and
control of resources male and female have access of resource. In particular, male have
more access to resources than female in Gulmi and both group of Rupandehi area. Similarly,
male have more control over the resources than female in both site and ethnicity. Subedi et
al. (2003b) reported that the extent of decision making role also reflect that women also have
access to and control over the crop resources, particularly in the hill areas. Females of
Gulmi have more access to and control over capital goods and perceived knowledge
(knowledge on home garden management). While in indigenous group of Rupandehi, female
have more access to capital goods, cash and perceived knowledge and control over capital
goods and cash.
Access to opportunities may not be equal to men and women. For example access to
production loan for Nepalese farmwomen is less as compared to the male farmers because
the farmwomen normally don’t own the land or house for the collateral. Similarly, women
farmers have less access to agriculture extension and training activities in comparison to the
male farmers.
Access to and control of benefits
Benefit analysis offers an in depth consideration of the benefits to a household and the
individuals within it of the products and by products of various livelihood activities. The
benefit from home garden includes social, economic, environmental benefits that can be
received directly or indirectly from home garden products. Women and men do not have
equal access or control over benefits. So the benefit analysis helps to identify the access to
or control over benefits from the home garden between the male and the female. In this
study benefits from home garden in crop, livestock, household activities, off farm enterprises,
vegetable, fruit, medicinal plant, fodder / forage and flower and ornamental production and
management were analysed. Male and female had equal access to and control over the
benefits from home gardens in rich categories. Similarly, male in medium and children in
poor categories were more benefited from home gardens in Gulmi. Whereas in Rupandehi,
male were more benefited in rich and medium categories of indigenous group and medium
category of migrant group and female were more benefited in poor categories of indigenous
group and rich category of migrant group, and all were equally benefited in poor category of
migrant group. However, in control over the benefits from home garden male and female
equally controlled in rich, male controlled more in medium and female controlled more in
poor categories of Gulmi area. Whereas male controlled more in rich and medium and
female controlled more in both group of poor categories in Rupandehi area (Annex 1 and 2).
This indicates that there are no differences regarding the benefit control by ethnicity.