Women Access to Market: Vegetable Marketing of Women in the Village of Hambaro,Nanggung Subdistrict, West Java, Indonesia

Abstract

This study aims to compare how gendered networks and coalitions affect the ability of groups to access and control natural resources and to access appropriate markets and capture value for their agricultural products. The study showed that men produce and sell main agricultural products such as rice, corn or cassava, while women may produce and sell minor vegetables. Most agricultural products are used for consumption and the surplus is sold around the village or to the middlemen. Commercial production by women farmers started with jasmine flowers and later with guava. In the village of Hambaro, market access is open to everyone, but dominated by men. Only a small number of women in Hambaro use the access to market their products. All nodes in the marketing network of vegetables and fruit especially guava are dominated hy men. The middlemen provide information on demand and price of products. Men and women obtain the same price when they use the same network. Men'get higher prices only when they go directly to the main market. Most women do not negotiate for price, but only on the terms of payment. Although men dominate the market for vegetables and fruits, the allocation of expenditures from the sale of vegetables and fruits are similar to that of women. The source of power of men is from the long established network between men and the middlemen, in addition to institutionalized farmer groups and their access to capital. The source of power of women is mainly from family networking and Slipport. Women who are actively participating in marketing gain support from their husbands in production and marketing of vegetables and are more confident in negotiating obstacles in marketing Katuk by selling directly to consumers through retails and obtaining higher prices than from middlemen.