Building on the Theory of Feminist Political Ecology (FPE), this paper examines the gendered sharing of intra-household decision-making powers, responsibilities, and rights over the exploitation of non-timber forest resources within Cherangany Hills Forest, Kenya. A cross-sectional survey research design was adopted, semi-structured questionnaires were administered to 280 Community Forest Association (CFA) members (140 male and 140 female) that were randomly sampled, and in-depth interviews were conducted among 35 key respondents (20 CFA members, 7 CFA leaders, 2 village elders, 2 assistant chiefs, 2 forest guards, and 2 forest officers) that were purposively sampled. Quantitative data was analysed in the form of mean and standard deviation and presented in the form of percentages and graphs. This paper highlights that husbands and wives shared the decision-making powers over the use of forest land for crop farming to a ‘Great Extent’. There was substantial gendered sharing of intra-household decision-making over the use of forest land for livestock feeding. However, there was minimal gendered sharing of intra-household decision-making with regard to the collection of firewood, herbal plants, indigenous vegetables, and fruits from the forest as well as beekeeping within the forest. The husbands and wives shared the responsibilities and rights over crop farming to a ‘Great Extent’. There was substantial gendered sharing of responsibilities and rights over the collection of fodder and grazing of livestock and collection of herbal plants from the forest. But there was minimal gendered sharing of responsibilities and rights over the collection of firewood, beekeeping and honey harvesting, collection of wild vegetables and picking of indigenous fruits from the forest. There is a need to enlighten, encourage and support both men and women living adjacent to forested areas to understand forest rights, embrace on-farm forestry, and use forest resources sustainably
This paper focuses on the effect of youth engagement in vegetable production on household well-being in Kakamega Town, Kenya. Survey research design was used and data was collected from 159 urban youth farmers using structured questionnaires and interviews. It was observed that the vegetable farmers engaged more frequently in weed control, land preparation, harvesting and planting. There was significant association between time spent on the farm and the size of vegetable plot (X2 = 46.074, p = 0.000 < 0.05) at significance level of 5%. Most of the vegetable farmers (90.5%, n = 144) reported that they will continue with vegetable production in the future. Some of the respondents (34.0%) reported that the vegetable produced was 'more than adequate' and 28.9% reported that it was 'adequate'. Majority of the farmers (84.3%) bought vegetables from estate groceries. The youth offered wage labour on other people's farms and were self-employed on their own farms. Urban farming was found to have led to greening of the city. To promote the well-being of the households, the Ministry of Agriculture and other key actors should support youth to engage in vegetable farming on large scale.
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