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. 2018 May 31;13(5):e0197995.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0197995. eCollection 2018.

Women's empowerment in agriculture and agricultural productivity: Evidence from rural maize farmer households in western Kenya

Gracious M Diiro  1 , Greg Seymour  2 , Menale Kassie  1 , Geoffrey Muricho  1 , Beatrice Wambui Muriithi  1
Affiliations

Women's empowerment in agriculture and agricultural productivity: Evidence from rural maize farmer households in western Kenya

Gracious M Diiro et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

This paper documents a positive relationship between maize productivity in western Kenya and women's empowerment in agriculture, measured using indicators derived from the abbreviated version of the Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index. Applying a cross-sectional instrumental-variable regression method to a data set of 707 maize farm households from western Kenya, we find that women's empowerment in agriculture significantly increases maize productivity. Although all indicators of women's empowerment significantly increase productivity, there is no significant association between the women's workload (amount of time spent working) and maize productivity. Furthermore, the results show heterogenous effects with respect to women's empowerment on maize productivity for farm plots managed jointly by a male and female and plots managed individually by only a male or female. More specifically, the results suggest that female- and male-managed plots experience significant improvements in productivity when the women who tend them are empowered. These findings provide evidence that women's empowerment contributes not only to reducing the gender gap in agricultural productivity, but also to improving, specifically, productivity from farms managed by women. Thus, rural development interventions in Kenya that aim to increase agricultural productivity-and, by extension, improve food security and reduce poverty-could achieve greater impact by integrating women's empowerment into existing and future projects.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Study area and distribution of sample households.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Percentage of women registering inadequacy in terms of each A-WEAI indicator.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Distribution of maize yield.
Fig 4
Fig 4. Distribution of seeds and pesticides expenditure in maize farming.
Fig 5
Fig 5. Distribution of seed planted in maize farming.
Fig 6
Fig 6. Distribution of fertiliser application rates in maize farming.
Fig 7
Fig 7. Distribution of labour use in maize farming.
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Publication types

Grants and funding

We acknowledge core funding to the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe) provided by UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), and the Kenyan Government. The work on push—pull technology is funded primarily by the European Union, with additional support from the Biovision Foundation and the UK Government’s Department for International Development (DFID). We also thank Emily Kimathi for producing study area map and Sandie Fitchat for language editing. The views expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of the donors or icipe.