10 pages, Yaried AA, Bullo MS. 2025. Determinants of women’s participation in income generating activities in western Ethiopia. Asian J Agric 9: 84-93. Participating in various income generating activities can improve women’s living standards by providing additional income, increasing agricultural productivity, reducing poverty and improving food security. This study focuses on assessing determinants of women’s participation in income generating activities in Itang special district of Gambella region. Primarily, Itang Special District was selected purposively among thirteen districts and 168 respondents were selected by using simple random sampling method. The data for this study was collected from both primary and secondary data sources. The descriptive analysis revealed that 62 (36.9%) of the households were farm participants, 86 (51.2%) were non-farm, and 20 (11.9%) were off-farm participants, respectively. Correspondingly, the multinomial logit model indicated that education status, household size, land size, livestock holding, access to credit, access to extension contacts, distance to main road, access to training, access to infrastructures, and access to market information is enormously significant variables that affect women’s participation in income generating activities. In conclusion, women’s participation in income generating activities has a greater role on improvements of their means of living. Therefore, government agencies, policymakers, and NGOs should pay attention to strengthening rural women households' participation in various income generating activities to improve their means of living.
37pgs, With agriculture considered key to generating jobs for Africa's growing population, several studies have explored youth aspirations toward farming. While many factors explaining aspirations have been well studied, little is known about the actors' shaping aspirations. We developed a novel framework that focuses on the factors and actors shaping the formation and actual aspirations of rural youth and applied a unique “whole-family” approach based on mixed-methods data collection from adolescents (boys and girls) and corresponding adults. We applied this approach in rural Zambia, collecting data from 348 adolescents and adults in 87 households. The study finds that parents strongly shape youth aspirations—they are much more influential than siblings, peers, church, and media. Male youth are more likely to envision farming (full or part-time) than female youth. The male preference for farming reflects their parent's aspirations and is reinforced by the patriarchal system of land inheritance. Parents' farm characteristics, such as degree of mechanization, are also associated with aspirations. We recommend a “whole- family” approach, which acknowledges the influential role of parents, for policies and programs for rural youth and a stronger focus on gender aspects.
22pgs, In recent decades, meat consumption patterns have been changing. This study investigates the main drivers of white and red meat consumption in crisis regions based on microeconomic theory, hegemonic masculinity theory, meat paradox theory, and nutrition transition theory. A quantitative questionnaire survey was conducted in Sulaymaniyah city in Iraqi Kurdistan in 2018. Data from 233 respondents were collected. Multifactorial linear regression analysis showed that the main drivers in the consumption of white meat and red meat are similar: higher income and preferences for the taste of white or red meat have a statistically significant, positive effect on meat consumption. Men consume white meat more than women. The consumption of red meat decreases when the respondent is concerned about the fat content of meat and animal welfare awareness does not have a statistically significant effect on the consumption of either type of meat.
13 pages, HIV Aids has had a major impact on resource-limited African rural Sub-Saharan communities, especially upon women who typically experience greater gender inequity, have fewer assets and greater food insecurity and vulnerability. Coordinated interventions in crop productivity, nutrition, AIDS treatment, and livelihood security can have significant positive impacts on individuals and households; however their impact upon gender relations and social equity is unclear. Qualitative interviews and an integrative model of factors influencing women’s empowerment are used to examine this issue in four villages of the Miracle Project in Zambia and Malawi. Although some local agency and NGO programs existed in these villages prior to project inception, female respondents reported improvements in crop productivity and income, some initiation of new enterprises, improvement in ownership of assets and housing quality and access or re- access to kinship or community based mutual assistance networks from which they had been excluded. Consumption of the introduced quality protein maize and products from home processing of soyabeans were cited as improving household nutrition. Together with increased accessibility to retroviral drugs, women’s health has improved; levels of poverty and stigmatisation have reduced and allowed many to display an improved degree of empowerment.
27pgs, This study examines the effect of gender on marketing efficiency among maize producing households using data collected in the Dawuro zone, southern Ethiopia. Results indicate that the amount of maize assigned to the first ranked (most efficient) channel for male, female and joint decision-making households is significantly larger than that of the second, third, and fourth ranked channels, respectively. Significant results vary across gender categories at the same stage of marketing channel. Female decision-making households receive a lower producer price, as well as cover higher marketing costs and margins of middlemen, as compared to male and joint decision-makers at the same stage of the marketing channel. This study also found a limited financial ability for local institutions to establish maize storages in the study area. There is a need for an integrated agricultural marketing information system that would help female decision-making maize producers to better engage in available market opportunities.
18 pages, This study examined gaps in climate information within public agricultural extension in Limpopo Province, South Africa. It assessed extension officers’ climate change perceptions, knowledge and climate education. Lastly, the study examined the extension approaches for overall suitability of climate information disseminated to rural smallholder farmers. The results indicated that participants were predominately male, with tertiary education. Education levels had an influence on exposure to climate education and extension approaches in disseminating agricultural information to farmers. There is a need to retool extension officers in climate change extension work, integrating indigenous knowledge to increase suitability and acceptability of information by smallholder farmers.
9 PAGES., Systematic reviews and meta-analyses generally focus on intervention impacts or outcomes. Less common, however, are reviews of the assumptions and theory underlying the pathways between intervention and outcome. We consider the hypothetical case for interventions to empower female farmers, either by prioritising women for new investments or re-allocating existing resources. Empowerment is defined as increased women's decision-making authority related to agricultural resources, management and production, and income. We hypothesise two avenues through which productivity or health benefits might arise: (i) eliminating female-male differences in, e.g. input access; or (ii) leveraging gendered risk, time, and social preferences leading women to differentially allocate resources. A review of evidence highlights the extent of support for the baseline, behaviour change, and economic benefit assumptions behind these hypothesised avenues. Findings suggest returns to investing in female farmers could be significant in various contexts but estimates of economic returns to empowering women in agriculture remain limited.
10 pages, How to increase conservation practices on farmland is a never-ending discussion topic for those working in the area of agriculture. Targeting of potential clients through conservation marketing is a key principle. Yet, prior research has identified that women and people of color are largely “invisible” in agriculture, to federal agricultural and conservation agencies. In this content analysis, we conduct an analysis of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) agency websites and social media to determine the inclusiveness of marketing by USDA. Our analysis of gender and race focuses on three primary categories: (1) numbers; (2) focus; and (3) roles. Our findings reveal that the USDA is perpetuating a normative position of agriculture as a man’s world with its dominant focus on the white male. The findings highlight how women (especially those of color) are marginalized in agricultural imagery by federal agricultural agencies that provide conservation programs.
28 pages, We analyse gender differences in the response of smallholder farmers to droughts, taking the duration and severity of the even t into account. Using a novel weather shock measure that combines spatial rainfall data with detailed cropping calendars, survey data from Uganda and standard econometric techniques, we find that adverse weather events provide an opportunity for women to enter the commercial crop market by allocating land from subsistence to income generating crops. This counterintuitive pattern is, in part, explained by the greater propensity of men to allocate time to non-agricultural activities in the event of weather shocks.
15 pages, Drawing on the narratives of women and men who have domestic or international migration experiences, this study explores the gendered impacts of migration on small-scale farming in rural Ha Tinh province in Vietnam. The paper investigates men’s and women’s migration experiences, their influence on agricultural production, and impact on their livelihoods after migration. The findings show that households use various strategies to sustain agricultural production in the absence of some members. Women’s increased economic independence through labor migration has not necessarily lead to their increased management roles in agriculture, but they are increasingly challenging stereotypical images of rural women. While migration can be a catalyst for men to transform their livelihoods, it can also widen gaps in social and economic statuses among men.
