Chapter 4 - Effects of Technology Adoption and Gender of Household Head: The Issue, Its Importance in Food Security—Application of Cramer’s V and Phi Coefficient

Abstract

In this chapter, the commercialization theme is extended to determine the implications of gender differences among adopting households. Since adoption of new technologies and commercialization depend on the control of resources within households, and such control has implications of the use of income from commercialization on food and nutrition outcomes, the issues addressed are whether female-headed households are likely to adopt new technologies and whether among adopters of new technology, female-headed households are likely to become more food and nutrition secure. Using case studies on hedgerow intercropping in Kenya and Nigeria, adoption of improved maize technology in Ghana and hybrid maize adoption in Zambia, this chapter introduces cross-tabulation procedures along with Cramer’s V and phi test statistics to test the hypothesis on the relationship between cash crop growing and the gender of the household head. We also relate the topic to the economic status of female farm operators in Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and the US.