Empowerment Of Farm Women Research Articles

Women empowerment in agriculture and its effect on household food security: evidence from Gamo Zone of Southern Ethiopia

BackgroundWomen empowerment and food security are supposed to be two mutually reinforcing goals of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda of the United Nations. However, the measurement of women’s empowerment and its relationship with household food security in the agricultural context is too limited, especially in Ethiopia. The main objective of this study is to examine the effect of women’s empowerment in agriculture on household food security in the Gamo zone of Ethiopia.MethodsCross-sectional data were collected from 385 dual-adult households, selected through a multistage random sampling procedure from two districts—Chencha and Kucha of Gamo zone in Ethiopia. The data were collected on the sample households’ demographic, socioeconomic, women empowerment, food consumption and livelihood activities—crop production, livestock holding and off-farm participation by interviewing both primary male and female decision-makers from each household. Household food security was measured using Calorie Availability, Household Food Consumption and Dietary Diversity Score, while women’s empowerment in agriculture was measured using the Abbreviated Women Empowerment in Agriculture Index. Ordinary Least Square, Two-Stage Least Square, Poisson and Instrumental Variable Poisson regression were used as analytical models.ResultsOur study shows that increases in women’s empowerment are positively and significantly associated with all food security indicators—adult equivalent calorie availability, household-level food consumption and dietary diversity. The result also shows that food security is positively related to the proportion of adult household members, age and education of primary female, landholding size, crop diversification, food crop production, the number of dairy cows owned and off-farm participation. However, food security is negatively related to household size.ConclusionThe implication of the finding is that stakeholders should give due attention to promoting women’s empowerment and eliminating the gender gap in agriculture through appropriate gender mainstreaming intervention in dual-adult households. Food security programmes could also gain from prioritizing female education and promoting agricultural diversification (crop and livestock) and off-farm income diversification strategies as valuable investments to improve household food security. This study is the first application of the Abbreviated Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index in Ethiopia as a predictor to household food security, and contributes to the women’s empowerment–household food security nexus literature in developing countries.

Women's agency in nutrition in the association between women's empowerment in agriculture and food security: A case study from Uganda

AbstractThis study examined the relationship between women's empowerment in agriculture (WEA), women's agency in nutrition, and their food security. It aimed to quantify the moderating effect of women's agency in nutrition on the association between WEA and food security. Data from the NutriFish project, a gender‐ and nutrition‐sensitive agricultural intervention in fishing villages in Uganda, were utilized. The study included 380 primary Ugandan female decision makers in dual adult households. WEA was measured using the Project‐level Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (pro‐WEAI). Women's agency in nutrition was assessed through measures of agency in regular diet, pregnancy diet, breastfeeding diet, and food purchase. Binary logit regression models were employed to estimate differential associations between WEA and food security, testing three‐way interactions between WEA, agency in regular diet, and food purchase. Results showed that WEA was associated with a 0.18 increase in the predicted probability of food security (p < .01). Women's participation in food purchase decisions strengthened the WEA‐food security association by 0.33 (p < .05). The results suggested that promoting women's food purchase agency can enhance the positive link between WEA and food security. Prioritizing interventions empowering women in food purchase decisions improves food security in gender‐ and nutrition‐sensitive programs.

Effect of Women Empowerment in Agriculture on Household Food Security Index in Benin

Effect of Women Empowerment in Agriculture on Household Food Security Index in Benin

Constraints to women’s empowerment in agriculture in rural farming areas in Oyo State, Nigeria

This study examined the major barriers to women empowerment in agriculture in rural farming areas in Oyo State, Nigeria. A multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select 100 women farmers and primary data was collected with the aid of a semi-structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics was used to analyse the data and the findings are presented in table and chart. The study revealed that the inability to access formal credit (x̄ = 4.61), heavy domestic workload (x̄ = 4.36), and poor pricing of produce (x̄ = 3.89) are major barriers to women empowerment in agriculture in the study area. Therefore, providing access to formal credit facilities, provision of labour-saving technologies, and regulation of agricultural produce prices will enable women’s empowerment in agriculture.

Constraints to Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture in Rural Farming Areas in Oyo State, Nigeria

This study examined the major barriers to women empowerment in agriculture in rural farming areas in Oyo State, Nigeria. A multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select 100 women farmers and primary data was collected with the aid of a semi-structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics was used to analyse the data and the findings are presented in table and chart. The study revealed that the inability to access formal credit (x̅= 4.61), heavy domestic workload ( x̅= 4.36 ), and poor pricing of produce (x̅= 3.89 ) are major barriers to women empowerment in agriculture in the study area. Therefore, providing access to formal credit facilities, provision of labour-saving technologies, and regulation of agricultural produce prices will enable women’s empowerment in agriculture.

Intra-household gender disparity: effects on climate change adaptation in Arsi Negele district, Ethiopia

Women empowerment in agriculture influences adaptation capacity to climate change impacts. Women are disempowered in rural households. This affects household's adaptive capacity to climate change negatively. Household survey, focus group discussion, key informant interview and workshop were used to track stakeholders' opinions on gender disparity in agriculture and policy issues. The objective of the study was to assess the gender parity index in agriculture, resource governance patterns and how these impact the capacity to climate change adaptation. The results show wives were imparity with their husbands. The parity gap on ownership, access to, and decision-making power over agricultural equipment was as wide as 59% and this affects women's adaptation capacity to climate change impacts. Indeed, 94% of the coupled households have got their land by redistribution and inheritance land acquisition forms by which both forms of acquiring land favored the husband. Half of the respondent households acknowledged that they have already acquired certification for their farmlands. However, the certification was mostly given by the names of husbands and in few cases by both. Certification of farmlands by the name of a wife and a husband has built confidence on ownership and manage their farmlands. This has helped a household to better adapt climate change impacts. Gender disparity in agricultural productive resources combined with policy and cultural distortions could exacerbate household's vulnerability to the impacts of climate change. This indicates the need for gender mainstreaming in climate change policy reforms and formulation so as to empower women and build their adaptive capacity.

The role of multi-dimensional women's empowerment in agriculture to improve the nutritional status of under-five children in rural cash crop producing, resource-limited settings of Ethiopia.

Little is known about the relation between the women empowerment in agriculture index, and health and nutrition outcomes among under-five children in Ethiopia. The study's objective was to examine women's empowerment in agriculture and its association with the nutritional status of children (6-59 months) in rural, cash crop producing, and resource-limited settings of Ethiopia. A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted employing 422 households; having women of reproductive age group and children under-five. Stratified simple random sampling was used to identify households; a simple random sampling was used to select villages and households. Women empowerment in agriculture was measured by the abbreviated women empowerment in agriculture index. Even if the overall multi-dimensional five domains of empowerment index (5DE) was not a significant predictor of nutritional status in children (P > 0⋅05), sub-indicators had a pivotal role in child nutritional status. Disempowerment in decisions about input into production [AOR = 8⋅85], empowerment on control of income [AOR = 0⋅35] and availability of livestock [AOR = 0⋅38] were predictors of child stunting, whereas women's disempowerment in production decisions seems beneficiary for wasting, disempowered women have 84 % less likely to have wasted child than empowered women [AOR = 0⋅16]. Dietary and agricultural diversity [particularly livestock farming], and women's empowerment in production decisions were predictors of better nutritional outcomes in children. Therefore, a concentrated effort is needed towards strengthening the multi-dimensional empowerment of women in agriculture emphasising women's input into production decisions, dietary and agricultural diversification, mainly livestock farming.

Impact analysis of women centric technological interventions in rural dairy farming

Women continue to lack adequate access to extension, technology, market and credit despite their active involvement in major activities of crop and dairy farming. ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI), Karnal implemented a research project titled, “Empowerment of farm women through livestock technologies” during 2015-2017. Two women groups were formed in Pingli and Jundla villages of Karnal district, Haryana, India with 20 members in each group to facilitate the technology diffusion in dairy farming based on their identified needs, interests, preferences and level of knowledge and skill through participatory approach. The impact of interventions was assessed based on pre and post interventions by developing a set of indicators for each intervention in 2018. The findings revealed that the farm women not only gained economic returns due to introduced technologies, but also motivated fellow farm women to adopt the use of cream separator, supplementing yeast in cattle feed, mechanical lassi maker/butter churn, pouch making machine, preparation of value added dairy products for home consumption and marketing, cultivation of bajra napier for throughout the year fodder supply, cultivation of berseem fodder variety BL-42, head load manager for carrying fodder and dung and chaff cutter with safety net. These technologies were found to significantly increase their work efficiency, reduce drudgery and contribute to additional income among the adopted families. A participatory approach and convergence of development agencies would facilitate farm women empowerment and serve as role model for fellow women in dairy farming.

Women Empowerment in Agriculture and its Dimensions: A Conceptual Review

Women empowerment is a broader term which has been described in a variety of ways. It is a global issue, which has been accelerated in recent decades. The term women empowerment has also received much attention from researchers, government and other stakeholders. It is now widely accepted that gender equality and women empowerment are essential component for achieving development results. The present article is an attempt to develop conceptual clarity of the term women empowerment and its dimensions in agriculture. As per the existing literature it has been reviewed that women empowerment is a complex and multidimensional concept. Different dimensions of women empowerment resulting from various definitions are: input in productive decisions and autonomy in production, ownership of assets and access to and decisions on credit, control over use of income, workload and time allocation and education. It has also been analysed that access to these dimensions and women empowerment might lead toward sustainable development in terms of improved livelihood resulting in reducing food insecurity.

Women empowerment in agriculture and food security in Savannah Accelerated Development Authority zone of Ghana

PurposeThis paper assessed the causal effect of women empowerment in agriculture (WEA) on household food security in the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) zone of Ghana.Design/methodology/approachThe study used the extended probit regression with endogenous treatment to account for potential endogeneity of empowerment and food security using data from the United States Agency for International Development's (USAID) Feed the Future baseline survey.FindingsAll three indicators of women empowerment positively impact food security. In specific terms, when women participate in crop and livestock decision-making in the household, and when they have access to cultivable lands, their households have lower probabilities of being severely or moderately hungry. Also, crop decision-making exhibits the highest impact on food security.Practical implicationsWhile there may be several policy options to eradicate food insecurity challenges in Ghana, the policy measure of empowering women in agriculture needs attention. Priority should be given to empowering them in production decision-making.Social implicationsThere is the need to sensitise households on the importance of women decision-making within the household and their access to land.Originality/valueIn the context of the empowerment literature, from our search, this study is the first in applying the hunger scale as a measure of food security and represents the first attempt at examining the effect of women empowerment on food security in Ghana.

Women empowerment in agriculture: A case study of village Kangoo in Hamirpur district of Himachal Pradesh

Women empowerment in agriculture: A case study of village Kangoo in Hamirpur district of Himachal Pradesh

Women Empowerment And Sustainable Development In Nigeria

A nation that cannot feed her citizens effectively is facing a very big global economic challenge. This was one of the reasons why UN inculcated food security measure as one of the 2003 MDG goals for the developing countries before 2015 target years. Nigerians economic down turn started when agricultural economy was neglected and attention was given to crude oil economy as the major export of the country’s economy. The neglect export of the country’s economy. This neglect of the country’s agric economy gave rise to the present social and economic challenges such as poverty, unemployment, food security, low agric export system, youths restiveness, social insecurity and the general infrastructural decay and decay in other systems. Therefore one of the striking measures to address the countries economic system is through the revival of agriculture with particular reference to women empowerment.
 The paper therefore discussed women empowerment, importance of agriculture to Nigerian economy and the need for women empowerment in agriculture. The paper also highlighted strategies for women empowerment, demerits of not empowering women and challenges confronting women farmers in Nigeria.
 The paper recommends an immediate action to empower women farm with enough financial and material support for women farmers in Nigeria

English

The objective of the study was to determine the degree of women empowerment in agriculture as well as examine the effect of organic certification and other socio-economic and cultural factors on women empowerment in agriculture in Kenya. This objective was achieved using data from peri-urban vegetable and rural honey producing households. It followed the innovative multidimensional measurement of women empowerment in agriculture, and the univariate and multivariate two limit Tobit models was used to assess the determinants of women empowerment. The two limit Tobit models results affirmed the hypothesis that organic certification opens up knowledge space for women empowerment in agriculture in some domains but had more impact among women in vegetable producing households. However, the variation of the degree of women empowerment in agriculture was also influenced by men, women and household socioeconomic and cultural characteristics. Policies geared towards enhancing women’s social capital and ownership of assets will improve the women household bargaining power and subsequently women empowerment in Agriculture.       Key words: Women empowerment in agriculture, organic certification, peri-urban, rural, knowledge space.

Economic empowerment of farm women through management of vegetable nursery

Economic empowerment of farm women through management of vegetable nursery

Impact of public private partnership model on women empowerment in agriculture

A study was undertaken to assess the impact of three public private partnership (PPP) models in agriculture which were implemented as part of ICAR network project namely “Public private partnership for gender mainstreaming in agriculture” by the Central Institute for Women in Agriculture (CIWA), Bhubaneswar during 2009-2013. After forming the farm women groups and framing of memorandum of understanding (MOU) with both public and private planers, the PPP model was successfully demonstrated on vegetable cultivation in Coimbatore district of Tamil Nadu, mushroom cultivation in Palakkad and Thrissur districts of Kerala and vermicompost production in Jorhat district of Asom. Primary data were collected from members of farm woman group with 24 respondents in Tamil Nadu, 20 respondents in Kerala and 30 respondents in Asom in the month of April 2016. Frequency and percentage were worked out to interpret the results. Farm woman had better understanding about the concept of PPP and its utility. The relatives and neighbours although discouraged the PPP model in Tamil Nadu, extended whole hearted support in Kerala and Asom. Farm women realised 20% more income and 10% additional employment generation in all the three states. PPP models enhanced the access of farm woman to training, market, extension and financial services. They also helped the farm women to build up their confidence and team spirit. The critical input from these field level demonstrated models would help to form or strong extension strategy for promoting partnership based models in agriculture.

Farm women empowerment through income generating activities: A study of Bikaner District of Rajasthan

The agricultural scenario in rural India presents a very intricate picture of role of women and activities related to complete farm production. In fact, rural women and agriculture seems to be synonymous terms. Many experts on evolution opined that it was the women who are responsible for settled agriculture. Farming is a family enterprise in which both men and women work shoulder to shoulder in the fields. Women's participation in agriculture production includes a variety of tasks ranging from preparatory tillage to the harvesting and post harvesting tasks. Almost 70–80 per cent of the agricultural operations are done by women. Empowerment of the farm women in income generating activities is a current need of the time in an agrarian country like, India. Addressing these issues how Empowerment of farm women doubling the income activities are discussed in the paper.

Empowerment of Farm Women through Income Generating Activities

Women empowerment is a process in which women gain greater share of control over resources material, human and intellectual and financial resources and control over decision making in the home, community, society, nation and to gain power. Economic independence is one of the means to empower the women. This study was undertaken in five blocks of Bhadrak district of Odisha comprising 150 numbers of respondents. The study revealed that, among various income generating activities, the extent of involvement of farm women in agro-processing (Rank I) then vegetable cultivation, mushroom cultivation, backyard poultry rearing, dairy farming, Goat farming, Craft making and vermin- composting etc. Promotion of income generating activities in rural areas not only enhance national productivity, generate employment but also help to develop economic independence, personal and social capabilities farm women. Economic empowerment, improved standard of living, self confidence, enhanced awareness, sense of achievement, increased social interaction, engagement in political activities, increased participation level in meeting, improvement in leadership qualities, involvement in solving problems related to women and community, decision making capacity in family and community are the positive outcome.

Role of Farm Women in Agriculture

Women play a crucial role in all farm-related activities from land preparation to marketing. They contribute a higher proportion of labor in agricultural sector than men. However, they are not active in decision making. This research note discusses the impact of Green Revolution and mechanization on farm women in India. It stresses the need for a new agricultural research and extension agenda which integrates gender analysis into the process of technology generation and dissemination. It also comes up with future strategies to make women a more active part of important farm decisions both at the household and legislature level. This research note emphasizes the importance of balancing agricultural research systems, extension education, and policy-making bodies to attain women empowerment in agriculture.

Empowerment of Women on an Agricultural Research Farm in India: A Success Story

At the heart of all research activities in agriculture lies the huge power of human resources, which helps to galvanize scientists into action. This disorganized force of workers, called the labour force, comprises both men and women to be employed on an equitable basis. As in other areas of work, women working on the farm have certain stereotyped roles in an otherwise supposedly non-gender-specific domain. This paper looks into the presumptions, problems and prospects of these neglected, but essential women workers on agricultural research farms. It highlights the experiences and issues that have emerged from a novel experiment involving the empowerment of farm women. In the case presented, empowerment was achieved through a threefold strategic approach. This involved education to promote positive self-image and self-confidence, skills development, and creating an awareness of social change. Various initiatives were promoted on a sustained basis to bring about the change process. These included adult literacy programmes, payment of wages to individuals through their bank accounts, on-site skills development and training, participation of workers in decision-making meetings to develop action plans and set targets for their respective areas of work, acquisition of gender-friendly equipment, health campaigns, etc. All these brought about gradual but perceptible changes in their attitudes and behaviour. The result of this empowerment process was reflected in enhanced qualitative and quantitative outcomes. A crucial factor in the success and sustainability of this empowerment process was the support and visionary outlook of top management. The lessons from this case study can serve as motivating factors for other agricultural institutions to experiment.

Women on South African Farms: Empowerment Across or Along Race and Class Divisions?

This paper explores the role being played by two prominent women groupings in empowering farm women on South African fruit and wine farms. By focusing their efforts on farm wives and women farm workers, the Cape Women’s Forum has embarked on a process of empowering farm women across race and class divisions. This approach contrasts with that of the other group – the Women on Farms Project – in that the latter facilitates the empowerment of women farm workers only. The paper examines the activities of two groups, analyses the underlying assumptions regarding women’s shared interests guiding these divergent approaches from a feminist perspective, and identifies factors which could constrain women’s empowerment. Information on these groups was obtained by in‐depth interviews and analysis of written documents. It is suggested that liberal and socialist/Marxist feminist paradigms are particularly useful when interpreting the empowerment strategies employed by these two women’s groups. The paper concludes that, although these groups are making significant inroads into the empowerment of farm women, developments within the South African agricultural sector and the politics of international sponsorship may impede empowerment efforts in future.