ABSTRACT
This chapter examines issues of food production in southern Cameroon, a region that produces food both for subsistence and for the market as well as producing the bulk of Cameroon's cocoa exports. It analyzes the interactions between the labor and capital constraints in peasant households in southern Cameroon and the differences in the nature of these constraints for men and women. The chapter explores the gender dimensions of farmers' capital constraints by comparing men's and women's separate income streams and the current gender differences in access to credit and spending on productive inputs. It describes the villages studied, the research methods, and the results and addresses the implications of the findings for state policy. The chapter suggests that food policies, technological innovations, and credit policies directed at alleviating women's labor and capital constraints are likely to be more cost effective approaches to meeting national food needs than are policies directed at attracting more male labor into the food sector.
