Gendered Knowledge of Conservation Agriculture Practices in the Philippines.

This research aims to identify gender-based constraints and opportunities for conservation agriculture production systems in smallholder farming communities in three villages of Claveria, Mindanao, Philippines. Rooted in feminist geography, it combines qualitative research with geospatial analysis to produce a qualitative GIS that shows gender differences in local knowledge of soils. Methods include focus group discussions, field and household visits, soil sampling, and GIS analysis. Participatory mapping was used at a community level to draw soils types on Google Earth satellite images and at a household level with farmers drawing individual plots. Women and men were interviewed separately and focus-groups were segregated by gender in order to encourage women’s participation. Future analysis includes laboratory research of soil samples taken at the points identified by farmers as their best and worst soils. Preliminary findings show that men and women’s local soil knowledge is related to gendered access and use of space. This research represents a novel approach to using GIS to organize, analyze, and present data drawn from multiple methodologies, both quantitative and qualitative. This research is part of the Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resource Management Collaborative Research Support Program (SANREM CRSP) and builds on a pilot study with the same methodology and research questions in Bolivia undertaken as part of this gender cross-cutting research activity.