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THE INVISIBLE HANDS IN THE PRODUCTION OF GHANA’S PREMIUM COCOA: WOMEN AS KEY CONTRIBUTORS
Views:223So often, what women do especially in relation to productive work is ignored by various researchers. This study tries to bring to the limelight the extent to which women are contributing to the production of Ghana’s premium cocoa which is an envy all over the world. A cross-sectional data from 400 women cocoa farmers in Mampong and Tepa Cocoa Districts in the Ashanti Region of Ghana was taken. Data were collected through the use of structured questionnaires. Descriptive and inferential statistics such as percentages, mean, standard deviations, frequencies, multiple linear regression were used for the data analysis. Findings from the study showed that women cocoa farmers play enormous role in the production of cocoa. They play roles in both the pre-harvest stage, and in the post-harvest stage. The results show that women in partnership with their spouses play more active role in cocoa production than women who are sole owners. Marital status, farming experience and educational level are the key factors influencing women farmers production roles. Again, marital status, pre-planting and harvesting activities influence women farmers’ access to resources, privilege, power, and control. Women farmers in partnership with their spouses face the challenge of support from their husbands while women operating as sole owners face the challenge of high cost of labour. Results prove that women cocoa farmers must be massively supported by key stakeholders in the cocoa value chain in order to make them count.
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Assessment of women farmers’ credit needs in imbulpe ds division in Sri Lanka
Views:354The study was conducted to identify the role of women farmers’ credit needs, using Imbulpe (Divisional Secretariat) DS Division in Sri Lanka. As the sample size of study 238 women farmers were selected from seven selected (Grama Niladhari) GN divisions of the study area. This study was conducted to identify the areas and level of credit needed by women farmers. And also, the agricultural credit sources of was identified. Women farmers were selected by using the simple random sampling method. Questionnaire Survey was used as the data collection method from March to July 2019. Descriptive statistics was used for the data analyzing process and the result showed that, 59.7 % of the women farmers were observed within the middle ages (40-59 years), most of them were married, and 4-5 members within their family. 64.3 % of women farmers were studied up to secondary level education. Majority of the women farmers were noted that they need credit facilities for the application of agrochemicals and fertilizers. In Addition to that, utilization of modern farming technologies, transportation & marketing of agricultural products and purchasing improved seeds & livestock related credit neediness most important for them. And also, they were showed a less interest regarding the credit neediness for pre-planting activities, irrigation facilities and harvesting activities. Most of the respondents were indicated high level of credit neediness for the application of agrochemicals and fertilizers and utilization of modern farming technologies while moderate and low level of agricultural credit neediness regarding the pre-planting activities, irrigation facilities and harvesting activities within the study area. Majority of the respondents were showed savings from the previous agricultural earnings and other family member or fellow women as their major credit sources of agricultural activities. Private money lenders act as the least important credit source for agricultural activities in the study area.
JEL CODE: Q1, Q12 -
Empowerment of rural women farmers and food production in Rathnapura district in Sri Lanka: a household level analysis
105-112Views:385Women empowerment and gender equity are two significant aspects of the sustainable development of a country. As Sri Lanka is on the way towards sustainable development, this study was conducted to assess the situation of women farmers’ empowerment and food production in Rathnapura district of the country. A sample of 300 women farmers was randomly selected for the study, from two selected Divisional Secretariat (DS) of Rathnapura district. Data was collected from a field survey using a pre-tested, self-administered questionnaire survey from April to July 2019. Empowerment was analyzed using the empowerment framework used by RAHMAN AND NAOZORE in 2007 in the study of “Women Empowerment through Participation in Aquaculture” with necessary modifications. Data analysis was conducted using descriptive statistics, correlation analysis and multiple linear regression analysis. Results revealed that majority of the women farmers were middle aged, married and had children. Furthermore, most of them had education up to secondary level. While average family size was four, average farm size was 1.25 acres. They had around 16 years of farming experience. The average monthly income of them was 25,000.00 LKR whereas 20% of it was from agriculture. The main sources of empowerment of women farmers were the Agrarian Service Center (55%) followed by village organizations/societies (30%) and microfinance institutions (26%). Furthermore, women empowerment index was 0.65. It is a moderate level of empowerment. However, there were women farmers under three categories of empowerment levels: low empowerment (4.1%), medium empowerment (58.5%) and high empowerment (36.1%). Out of the socio-economic factors; age, education, family size, land size, number of training programs participated, monthly income, experience in agriculture and number of organizations participated, education and number of training programs attended had significant and positive effect for the empowerment. Accessibility of credit facilities and agricultural extension program participation showed that there was a considerable impact on food production rather than the cultivable land size and utilization of modern farming technologies for food production. Therefore, proving of timely important agricultural education and training programs, enhance awareness level of modern farming technology utilization, better micro finance programs and agricultural credit facilities will be able to enhance the empowerment level of the women farmers of this area furthermore.
JEL CODE: Q01, Q12
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WHAT DRIVES FEMALE FARMERS’ PARTICIPATION IN OFF-FARM ACTIVITIES? THE CASE OF RURAL NIGERIA
Views:223Women often lack access to productive resources such as land and capital in most developing countries. This forces them to take part in off-farm activities to augment their little farm income. This study investigated factors that affect the involvement of women farmers in different types of off-farm entrepreneurial livelihood activities in rural Bauchi state, Nigeria. A purposive sampling method was used in selecting three local government areas in the western agricultural zone of the state and a random sampling method was used in selecting ten wards. 5% registered women farmers in each selected ward, making 134 respondents. Semi-structured questionnaires were administered to women farmers in 2017. The results revealed that food processing, farm product sales, trading and tailoring are the major off-farm livelihood activities engaged in by rural female farmers. Logit regression results revealed, as expected, that different factors affect their involvement in various types of off-farm activities. Food processing and tailoring required relatively high start-up capital and access to electricity as an investment and the use of machines was needed. Thus, access to credit or remittances and to electricity increases the probability of being involved in these activities. The requirements of trading being lower and access to market increases the probability of being involved. Provision of extension services, rural credit facilitation programmes, rural electrification, road and market structure development are instruments that are appropriate to support women farmers' involvement in off-farm activities.
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Women and microcredit in rural agrarian households of Uganda: Match or mismatch between lender and borrower?
77-88Views:553The alignment of microfinance programs with the context and expectations of the recipients is critical for ensuring clients’ satisfaction and desired program outcomes. This study sought to investigate the extent to which the objectives and design of the BRAC microfinance program match the expectations, context and characteristics of female borrowers in a rural agrarian setting in Uganda. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used to obtain socio-demographic, personality and microenterprise (ME) characteristics of existing borrowers, incoming borrowers and non-borrowers and to obtain information about the microcredit program. We found that BRAC uses a modified Grameen group-lending model to provide small, high-interest rate production loans and follows a rigorous loan processing and recovery procedure. BRAC clients are mainly poor subsistence farmers who derive income from diverse farming and non-farm activities. The major objective to borrow is to meet lump-sum monetary needs usually for school fees and for investment in informal small non-farm businesses. Many borrowers use diverse sources of funds to meet repayment obligations. Defaulting on loans is quite low. The stress caused by weekly loan repayment and resolution of lump-sum cash needs were identified as reasons for women to stop borrowing. The limited loan amounts, the diversions of loans to non-production activities, the stages of the businesses and the weekly recovery program without a grace period may limit the contribution of these loans to ME expansion and increase in income.
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