Impact of Gender Difference on Crop Productivity: Cross-sectional Data

Abstract

The study examined impact of gender difference on Crop productivity in Decha woreda of south west Kafa zone, located at 23 Km from Bonga Town, and 473 km south west of Addis Ababa. The specific objectives were to assess the extent to which the agricultural production system is gender oriented; to examine access and control over productive resources; and to examine which households are disadvantageous in control over productive resources. Cross-sectional data collected from a total of 140 respondents were used in this study whereby 65 were female headed and 75 were male headed households. The data were analyzed by using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS). Descriptive statistics such as frequency, mean, percentage, pie chart, bar graph, t-test and chi-square were used to summarize and compare the information between the two groups. Moreover, Cobb-Douglas (CD) production function was used to estimate the productivity difference in agriculture between male and female headed households. Results of the study showed that male headed households (MHH) own more of productive resources such as land, livestock, labor and other agricultural inputs as compared to female headed households (FHH). Moreover, the estimate of CD production function shows that livestock, herbicide use, land size and male labor were statistically significant for MHH while livestock, land size, herbicides use and female labor were significant variables for FHH. However, if FHH had equal access to the inputs as MHH, gross value of the output would be higher by 23.58% for FHH. This may suggest that FHH would be more productive than MHH if they had equal access to inputs as MHH. Additionally, accessing of FHH inputs that increase the productivity of agriculture such as herbicides, livestock and male labor; increasing the productivity of land; and introducing technologies that reduce the time and energy of women especially for enset processing. Keywords: Gender, Crop, Productivity, Efficiency DOI: 10.7176/JBAH/9-24-01 Publication date: December 31st 2019