In the 0000s, productivity increases were experienced in agriculture in Africa and Asia with state-supported economic development projects and modernization. State-supported economic development projects, the use of modern technology, and mechanization increased productivity in agriculture in Africa and Asia. However, the effects of the projects on women differed. Therefore, development projects do not produce the same results in every country and affect different groups in society in different ways. Economic development does not lead to social development in every context and does not provide gender equality.
In Africa, where the population is low and land is abundant, the traditional division of labor, in which women are disadvantaged, has re-emerged with the transfer of technology and machinery to men's control. When those engaged in subsistence production switched to production for the market, women's workload in agricultural production increased, and men focused on the sale of products and the use of new technologies or migrated to cities to work in different lines of business. In Asia, where there is a surplus of labor due to the high population and access to land is a problem, the same developments led to less participation of women in agricultural production and agricultural production to be controlled by men. In both countries, development projects have affected labor relations and the division of labor in different ways.