Doctoral Dissertation Research: Commercial Urban Agriculture in Gaborone, Batswana: Exploring the Effects of Gender on Productivity

这项研究将提供对博茨瓦纳哈博罗内商业性城市农业的性别和整体了解，以评估这种系统在解决城市粮食安全方面的潜力。分析将把微观层面的性别动态与宏观层面的结构联系起来，这些结构共同塑造了谁生产、在哪里生产以及他们能够生产什么。过去的研究表明，女性在城市务农的经历与男性不同。然而，在性别关系如何具体影响商业性都市农业系统的生产率方面，几乎没有做过什么工作。这项研究将调查权力的性别关系如何界定城市中资源、空间和环境的获取，并反过来影响生产力水平。这项研究将使用定量方法来确定性别和商业性城市农业生产率之间的统计关联，并主要使用定性方法来阐明它们之间的因果联系。它将查明那些促进和/或阻碍该市农业企业的效力和效率的因素。将使用社会生态抽样框架记录在产量、经济价值和营养含量方面由男性和女性领导的城市农业系统的一般生产力水平。预计这项研究将展示不同水平的生产力，以及作物和牲畜物种的质量和组成，由于获得资源的不同，空间分布和城市农业地块上的生态条件的差异。这项研究将通过追求城市形态的理论重新概念化，包括人与环境的相互作用，并在微观生产过程和宏观结构之间建立明确的联系，从而促进学术辩论。它将阐述一种明确的地理方法，将社会、空间和生态因素统一起来，作为农业生产力的基础。这项研究将采用比以前在城市农业领域的研究更精细的数据分类，以了解男性和女性在城市中如何以及为什么会有不同的农业，以及这对城市粮食生产的影响。这项研究也将有助于政策的制定。博茨瓦纳为都市农业的研究提供了一个及时的案例研究，因为政府正有意识地试图将商业性农业纳入其国家粮食安全战略和发展计划。都市农业被视为提高非洲城市优质食物的丰富性、规律性和可负担性的一种手段。为此，研究将确定博茨瓦纳制定和执行都市农业政策的关键因素和考虑因素。作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将提供支持，使有前途的学生建立一个强大的独立研究生涯。

The research will provide a gendered and holistic understanding of commercial urban agriculture in Gaborone, Botswana, in order to assess the potential of such systems in addressing urban food security. Analysis will link micro-level gender dynamics with macro-level structures that together shape who produces, where they produce and what they are able to produce. Past research suggests that women have different experiences with farming in cities than men. Yet little work has been done on specifically how gender relations influence the productivity of commercial urban agriculture systems. The research will investigate how gender relations of power delineate access to resources, spaces and environments in the city, and in turn influence levels of productivity. The research will use quantitative methods to determine the statistical associations between gender and commercial urban agricultural productivity, and primarily qualitative methods to illuminate their causal links. It will identify those factors that facilitate and/or hinder the effectiveness and efficiency of agricultural enterprises in the city. An socio-ecological sampling framework will be used to document the general levels of productivity found on male- and female-led urban agriculture systems in terms of yields, economic value and nutritional content. It is expected that the research will demonstrate varying levels of productivity, as well as quality and composition of crop and livestock species, along gender lines on account of differential access to resources, spatial distribution, and ecological conditions on urban agriculture plots.The research will contribute to academic debate by pursing a theoretical re-conceptualization of urban form to include human-environment interactions and draw explicit links between micro-level production processes and macro-level structures. It will elaborate an explicitly geographical approach that unites social, spatial, and ecological factors as the bases of agricultural productivity. The research will employ a finer disaggregation of data than previous studies in the field of urban agriculture to understand how and why men and women farm differently in cities and the implications of this for urban food production. The research will also contribute to policy formulation. Botswana presents a timely case study for research on urban agriculture for the government is consciously attempting to integrate commercial farming into its national food security strategy and development plans. Urban agriculture is viewed as a means of enhancing the abundance, regularity and affordability of good quality food in African cities. To this end, the research will identify key factors and considerations for the development and implementation of an urban agriculture policy for Botswana. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.