Pauline Muindi

Gender and social inclusion efforts in agricultural development are focused on making uptake of agricultural technologies more equitable. Yet research looking at how gender relations influence technology uptake often assumes that men and women within a household make farm management decisions as individuals. Relatively little is understood about the dynamics of agricultural decision-making within dual-adult households where individuals’ management choices are likely influenced by others in the household. This study used vignettes to examine decision-making related to maize plot management in 698 dual-adult households in rural Kenya. The results indicated a high degree of joint management of maize plots (55%), although some management decisions—notably those related to purchased inputs—were slightly more likely to be controlled by men, while other decisions—including those related to hiring of labor and maize end uses—were more likely to be made by women. The prevalence of joint decision-making underscores the importance of ensuring that both men’s and women’s priorities and needs are reflected in design and marketing of interventions to support maize production, including those related to seed systems, farmer capacity building, and input delivery.

This article offers insights into gender relations at every node of the maize value chain in rural Mozambique. Data were collected using mixed methods, including a survey of 295 households, key informant interviews with 29 individuals (breeders, agro-dealers, traders, and processors), and 12 sex-disaggregated focus group discussions with smallholder farmers. The findings show that in terms of the gender division of labor in maize production, there is no significant difference between male-headed and female-headed households concerning the participation of men, women, children, and hired labor. In addition, due to their culturally prescribed role as head of household, men are responsible for maize marketing and for making decisions both at the farm level and across the higher nodes of the value chain. Moreover, cultural restrictions on women’s mobility and gender disparities in access to transportation tend to exclude women from participating in the markets. However, women from matrilineal villages are shown to have more autonomy than those from patrilineal villages in making decisions about the quantity of maize to sell, participation in the market, and control of revenue. Finally, whether the woman belongs to the patriarchal or matriarchal system, she still faces challenges as she accedes to the higher nodes of the value chain, for example, participating as a trader, because of her dual roles as mother/homemaker and business woman.