Women’s empowerment in agriculture and agricultural productivity: Evidence from rural maize farmer households in western Kenya

Diiro, Gracious; Seymour, Greg; Kassie, Menale; Muricho, Geoffrey; Muriithi, Beatrice

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0197995

Cited by 136 publications

(116 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…The evidence suggests that there are some productivity differences across individually and jointly managed plots (De la O Campos, Covarrubias, & Patron, ), yet the patterns differ across locations. In Kenya, plots managed by women tended to use less fertilizer and less labor than either plots managed by men or those managed jointly (Diiro, Seymour, Kassie, Muricho, & Muriithi, ). Among polygynous households in Malawi, jointly managed plots in these households have higher yields and higher crop values than either men's plots in polygynous households, or plots in monogamous households (Damon & McCarthy, ).…”

Section: Key Findings From Observational Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding rural household behavior: Beyond Boserup and Becker

Doss

Quisumbing

2019

Agricultural Economics

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New data and new methods have provided many new insights into rural households in the past 50 years. We analyze what we have learned from household models since Boserup and Becker, using this to frame more recent findings about household behavior from three types of studies: observational studies, experimental games, and impact evaluations. More sex‐disaggregated data, as well as data that are collected at smaller units, such as agricultural plots, have allowed us to better understand agricultural productivity, risk sharing, and spousal cooperation. However, the focus on bargaining within households has often led us to ignore the cooperation that occurs within households. Many resources are owned and managed jointly by household members and many decisions are made jointly, although not all parties necessarily have equal voice in these decisions. Research demonstrating that households often do not reach efficient outcomes suggests that we still have much to learn about rural household behavior. Understanding both individual roles within households and the levels of cooperation, including joint decision making and ownership of resources, is essential to analysis of households, especially in rural areas where households engage in both production and consumption.

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Section: Key Findings From Observational Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding rural household behavior: Beyond Boserup and Becker

Doss

Quisumbing

2019

Agricultural Economics

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“…Female household heads are more likely to be employed onfarm (73%) than are male household heads (61%). Women's empowerment in farming operations has been shown to improve maize productivity in Western Kenya (Dirro et al 2018), though the researchers' analysis did not reveal strong gender-livestock productivity relationships.…”

Section: Household Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 84%

Linking calving intervals to milk production and household nutrition in Kenya

et al. 2020

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Maternal and child under-nutrition resulting in childhood stunting remains prevalent in east Africa, leading to increased disease risk, limiting cognitive development, and impeding human capital accumulation that constrains individuals, communities, and nations from reaching their full potential. In a western Kenyan population with a high prevalence of childhood stunting, frequency of milk consumption has been shown to increase monthly height gain in children, indicating the potential to improve health through livestock productivity. However, calving rates remain low, constraining the availability of milk to the household. Here we model average herd-level calving intervals and its relation to milk yield and nutrition in the context of an agricultural household production model, applying a dynamic panel econometric approach to household level data. We provide evidence that targeted on-farm specialization leads to significantly higher calving rates and shorter calving intervals, which in turn predictably increase milk production. Importantly, we show that the positive link between calving and household milk nutrition is present across households that primarily consume milk produced on-farm ("producer-consumers") and those that predominantly purchase milk ("milk buyers"), indicating that efforts to improve herd fertility in western Kenya could improve food security on a community scale. Keywords Calving intervals. Calving rates. Milk yield. Agricultural household production model JEL codes Q10 Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (

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“…The widened gender gap in adopting modern crop varieties and other agricultural technologies is detrimental to the empowerment of women in developing countries, and imposes real costs on societies in terms of untapped potential in agricultural output, food security and economic growth (Ragasa, 2012). Empirical studies had indicated that, if women farmers had the same access as men to improved agricultural inputs such as fertilizer and seed, maize yields would increase by as much as 16% in Malawi, 17% in Ghana and 19% in western Kenya (Diiro et al, 2018).…”

Section: Gender and Agricultural Productivitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender differentials on productivity of rice farmers in south-western Nigeria: An Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition approach

Ojo¹,

Danso-Abbeam²,

Ogundeji³

2020

Preprint

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One of the critical constraints hindering the transformation of African agriculture in general, and Nigerian agriculture in particular, is gender disparities in productivity. This study, therefore, examines gender inequality in farm productivity and sources of the productivity differentials among rice farmers in Nigeria, using the Oaxaca-Blinder (OB) gender decomposition model. The results revealed an uneven situation between men and women, leading to a gender productivity gap of about 29% in favour of men. Thus, female-managed plots are 29% less productive than male-managed plots. The decomposition of the sources of gender productivity differences shows that marital status, education, farm size and access to market information are the significant determinants of the endowment factor that contribute to about 15% of the productivity gap. The study, therefore, concludes that gender productivity inequalities exist in the Nigerian agricultural sector, hence, paying attention to these productivity gaps and factors contributing to these gaps is crucial in formulating policy interventions oriented towards women empowerment.

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Women’s empowerment in agriculture and agricultural productivity: Evidence from rural maize farmer households in western Kenya

Cited by 136 publications

References 47 publications

Understanding rural household behavior: Beyond Boserup and Becker

Understanding rural household behavior: Beyond Boserup and Becker

Linking calving intervals to milk production and household nutrition in Kenya

Gender differentials on productivity of rice farmers in south-western Nigeria: An Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition approach

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