Intensifying Inequality? Gendered Trends in Commercializing and Diversifying Smallholder Farming Systems in East Africa

Differences in Crop Selection, Resource Constraints, and Crop Use Values Among Female- and Male-headed Smallholder Households in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda

“…We then proceed to a breakdown of crop production according to HDDS food crop categories. As shown in Figure 2 and consistent with past findings from the region (Tavenner et al, 2019), both female-and male-headed households in the sample overwhelmingly plant multiple crops. On average, male-headed households plant more crops overall: in bivariate t-tests having a female head is associated with 0.55 fewer crops planted in Kenya (t=1.79, p=0.037), 1.19 fewer crops in Tanzania (t=3.91, p<0.001), and 0.61 fewer crops in Uganda (t=1.95, p=0.026).…”

“…Past research suggests that when faced with resource constraints, female-headed households may be more likely to utilize crop diversity as a strategy to meet livelihood needs (FAO, 2019;Quisumbing et al, 2014). This pattern is reflected in our findings, which suggest in the face of limited market access and disproportionate land resource constraints, female-headed households emphasize food crops for home consumption, and plant more diverse portfolios of food crops, compared to male-headed ones (Pincus et al, 2018;Tavenner et al, 2019). Though our findings do not allow for deeper explanations of whether food crop diversification among female-headed households occurs out of necessity due to resource barriers or because of a greater valuation of agrobiodiversity, we provide some preliminary evidence that women farmerswhether in female-headed or male-headed households-do place a greater value on the food security importance of crops, and less on the income importance, than their male counterparts in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda.…”

“…Gengenbach et al (2018) note that market-oriented agricultural development approaches in Africa often focus on empowering female smallholders, as a means of increasing regional farm output and addressing household food and nutrition insecurity. However, they and several authors highlight limits of market-oriented interventions in promoting and achieving gender equity goals (Gengenbach et al, 2018;Meemken & Qaim, 2018;Tavenner et al, 2019).…”

The Rural Household Multiple Indicator Survey, data from 13,310 farm households in 21 countries

“…The overall database (available at the Harvard Dataverse RHoMIS data repository) consists of the raw data (the 758 variables mentioned above; see subdirectory 'data to share\rhomis_full_data.csv') and 41 indicators calculated based on the information provided by these variables (see subdirectory 'data to share\rhomis_indicators.csv'). The raw data and indicators have already been used for a wide range of studies at site level 8,[12][13][14][15][16][17] , for regional analyses 18,19 , and for continental analysis 20 . Different aspects of smallholder households have been analysed, including gender equity 19,21 , dietary diversity 17,18 , nutritional gaps 20 , poverty and GHG emissions in relation to production intensification 8 , subsistence-versus market-orientated strategies 20 , and on-farm vs. off-farm activities 20 .…”

“…The raw data and indicators have already been used for a wide range of studies at site level 8,[12][13][14][15][16][17] , for regional analyses 18,19 , and for continental analysis 20 . Different aspects of smallholder households have been analysed, including gender equity 19,21 , dietary diversity 17,18 , nutritional gaps 20 , poverty and GHG emissions in relation to production intensification 8 , subsistence-versus market-orientated strategies 20 , and on-farm vs. off-farm activities 20 . RHoMIS is an on-going initiative, and we welcome interested parties to the community of practice (see www.rhomis.org for up-to-date information and downloadable survey questionnaires).…”