Background: Common bean one of the grain legumes that was traditionally considered a subsistence crop and therefore a woman's crop in Uganda was prioritized for commercialization. This has transformed the crop from being a subsistence crop (food security crop) to a commercial crop with more men engaged in its production. Little is known about the possibility of gender conflicts in production activities as the crop finds market. Methods:The study uses gender-disaggregated survey data from 500 men and 625 women in central Uganda. Both bivariate and multivariate methods were used to access the notion of bean being a women's crop based on gender participation intensities (a pairwise t test and Tobit regression model).Results: Seventy-three percent male-headed and 87% female-headed households had membership in farmers groups. Bean crop was majorly owned by women. Seventy-five percent of the studied bean plots were intercropped with other crops. On average, both men and women operated at one bean plot per season estimated. Winnowing (4.26), post-harvest handling and storage (4.25), sorting (4.22), planting (4.04) and weeding (4.00) were the five top most activities that rural women heavily participated in. The following are the top most five activities that men participated in: site selection (3.94), spraying against pests and diseases (3.81), bush clearing (3.77), fertilizer application (3.73) and harvesting beans (3.73). Bean consumption (1.3%), marketability (17.5%), distance to plot (8.1%), education (1.3%) and color (18.1%) had significant influence on women participation intensities. Household size (5.8%), farming as primary occupation (42.7%) and bean color (30.8%) had significant influence on men bean participation intensities. Conclusions:The study revealed there was significantly no bean production activity that was purely done by only men or only done by women. Thus, bean cannot be classified as a women's crop based on participation intensities since men offered support in a number of activities. In order to close the gender gap in bean production, there is need to target both men and women with gendered interventions and address issues of traditional norms.
Background While advances in agricultural research and development have led to generation of improved new cooking hybrid banana varieties (HBVs) with enhanced yield potential to restore production levels, these have been received with mixed feelings on production and consumption attributes among the farming communities in Uganda. Some farmers prefer HBVs that are comparable to their local varieties in terms of consumption attributes such as soft food, color when cooked, flavor and taste while others prefer high-yielding HBVs to produce surplus output for sale. Methods Using cross-sectional survey data from 242 randomly selected smallholder banana farmers in Nakaseke and Luwero districts in Central Uganda, the study applied a Tobit regression model to analyze the influence of socio-economic factors and variety attributes on the adoption of new hybrid bananas. Results The results on the perception of farmers on banana variety attributes showed that the new HBVs had desirable production-related attributes, while local cultivars were rated superior to hybrids on consumption-related attributes. Evidence further showed that production-related and consumption-related attributes influenced farmers’ decisions in the adoption of HBVs. Further, an assessment of the socio-economic factors that influence the adoption of HBVs showed that education of the farmer, household size, interaction with different banana actors, experience (number of years growing HBVs), and source of planting materials had a significant influence on farmers’ adoption of the new HBVs. Conclusion The study findings provide insights into the need for agricultural research and development initiatives to target the development of banana varieties with multi-traits that meet end-users’ preferences and needs. Facilitating the establishment of multi-actor platforms that bring together the different actors to share information and learn might be useful in increasing the intensity of HBVs adoption.
Efforts to combat Vitamin A deficiency in children and pregnant mothers have focused on promotion of nutritionally enhanced food security crops. Such efforts have recently targeted the production and consumption of these crops. The orange-fleshed sweetpotato (OFSP) is one of the most known nutritionally-enhanced crops. However, access to quality planting materials of OFSP and most vegetatively propagated crops by farmers remains a major constraint. This study used discrete and count data regression models and data collected from 732 farm households in Tanzania to test the effect of participation on a project designed to break this quality "seed" bottleneck (via technology awareness and targeted access to clean planting materials) on: i) the decision to conserve planting materials during dry periods for future planting and ii) the number of conservation strategies used by farmers. The study found that participation in such a project increases both the likelihood of conserving quality planting materials and also the number of conservation strategies employed by the farmers. It also found that varietal attributes and the agro-ecology of the area affect conservation of OFSP planting materials. It concludes that Downloaded by [University of Sussex Library] at 12:33 24 August 2015A c c e p t e d M a n u s c r i p t 2 awareness and access to clean sweetpotato planting materials of nutritionally-enhanced crops promote farmers' conservation of own planting materials. The study discusses the policy implications of the findings.
Unlike many other Sub-Saharan African countries, for many years Kenya had comparative advantages in the manufacturing of processed bean products. However, for new competitors intending to join the bean processing industry, little is known about marketing strategies for value added bean products. Using data from 90 retailers in the Nairobi and Kiambu counties in Kenya, a two-step econometric procedure-multivariate probit and Poisson regression models were applied to analyse retailers’ marketing strategy decisions. Findings show that information sources, cost of marketing, supply modalities, price of products, and quantities handled significantly influenced retailers’ marketing strategy choice. Surveyed retailers applied varying marketing strategies to market value added bean products. There is need for prospective retailers to choose an appropriate mix of strategies to penetrate the dynamic market with a number of value added bean products, and promote local consumption of value added bean products.
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