Is there any gender gap in the production of legumes in Malawi? Evidence from the Oaxaca\u2013Blinder decomposition model

Uzoamaka Joe-Nkamuke,Kai Mausch,Esther Njuguna-Mungai,Kehinde Oluseyi Olagunju

doi:10.1007/s41130-019-00090-y

Abstract

Understanding the gender differences in agricultural productivity is crucial for formulating informed and effective policies to sustainably improve low productivity which characterises agriculture in Sub-Sahara Africa. Using a panel dataset from the ICRISAT led Tropical Legumes project III (2008–2013), we analyse the gender gap in the production of legumes in Malawi. Employing the Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition method allows decomposition of gender gap into the following: (i) the portion caused by observable differences in the factors of production (endowment effect) and (ii) the unexplained portion caused by differences in return to the same observed factors of production (structural effect). We conducted the empirical analysis separately for pigeonpea and groundnut. Our findings reveal that for groundnut cultivated plots, women are 28% less productive than men after controlling for observed factors of production; however, the gender gap estimated in the pigeonpea cultivated plots are not statistically significant. The decomposition estimates reveal that the endowment effect is more relevant than the structural effect, suggesting that access to productive inputs contributes largest to the gender gap in groundnut productivity, and if women involved had access to equal level of inputs, the gap will be reduced significantly. The variation in the findings for groundnut and pigeon plot suggests that policy orientation towards reducing gender productivity gap should be crop specific.

Highlights

Low productivity characterises the agricultural sector in sub-Saharan African (SSA) which informs major agricultural intervention programmes in this region focusing on Extended author information available on the last page of the articleJoe-Nkamuke et al.changing the prevailing circumstance
The results show that the gender gap is 29% in favour of the male managers, suggesting that pigeonpea plot managed by a male is more productive than female-managed plot, not statistically significant
We study the productivity differences amongst male and female plot managers as well as factors that contribute to these differences in Malawi as part of ICRISAT’s tropical legume project

Summary

Introduction

Low productivity characterises the agricultural sector in sub-Saharan African (SSA) which informs major agricultural intervention programmes in this region focusing on Extended author information available on the last page of the articleJoe-Nkamuke et al.changing the prevailing circumstance. From a political and sociocultural point of view, women perhaps have unequal access to farmland compared with men, and in case they do, they are weakened by land tenure security (Arturo et al 2015). Another reason is that female farmers have limited channels through which they can access productive inputs; for instance, their access to improved varieties and agricultural extension services are less compared with that of their male counterparts subjecting them to inadequate use of fertilisers, labour, seeds and other inputs needed for optimal production. Food and Agricultural Organization asserts in their report in 2011 that developing countries of the world have the potential of increasing their aggregate agricultural output by 2.5–4.0% provided that they are able to reduce productivity gap between male and female farmers to its least minimum

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