Presented by Jemimah Njuki at the Global Conference on Women in Agriculture, New Delhi, India. 13-15 March 2012

1. Linking Women Farmers to Markets:
Patterns of Market Participation, Decision Making and Intra-
household Income Management
JemimahNjuki
Team Leader: Poverty, Gender and Impact
Presented at the Global Conference on Women in Agriculture
New Delhi, India. 13-15 March 2012

2.  There is evidence that income under the control of women is more likely to
be used to improve family welfare (family food onsumption, education, child
nutrition etc)—Quisumbing et al, 1995, FAO, 2006)
◦ An increase in women’s income of USD 10 achieves the same health and nutrition benefits
as in increase in men’s income of USD110
 Women are significantly excluded from markets and opportunities for them
to move from subsistence to market oriented agriculture are much lower
 Linking women farmers to markets is a critical pathway to women’s
economic empowerment—but participation in markets does not always
lead to economic empowerment of women
 Economic empowerment is also not sufficient for women’s full
empowerment—legal and political rights, voice, reproductive rights etc

3. Approach Advantages for women Disadvantages for women
Contract Guaranteed purchases at pre-set prices Contracts with farm owners (registered
schemes Sales often at farm gate owners who most often are men)
Out grower Support with technical services, inputs Possible hijacks by early adopters/
schemes and market information leaders
Close interaction with large firms for Contracts done with farm owners
transfer of skills and knowledge (registered owners who most often are
men)
Group based Group dynamics and collective action Domination by leaders/lack of group
approaches Women can gain confidence, gain commitment, non sustainability
leadership skills Production still individual and in most
Approaches build in capacity building in cases under the control of men
different aspects including financial
literacy
Co-operatives Women have voice Women might get loans but my not
Better organization and more bargaining have usufruct right
power leading to higher prices Registration may be for heads of
Easier access to services and inputs households and women do not get the
through such arrangements as such as full benefits of membership
bulk input purchase
Availability of informal revolving loans
and government recognition
Participatory, Women are given voice, ability to Women’s concerns might not be
bottom up influence approach according to skills factored into community demands
community Capacity building is central Scale is an issue, so women access
development Starts from where women are, gradually sustainable markets, get skills but
approaches building skills and capacity and therefore volumes may be low
more sustainable

4.  A focus on different approaches
for linking smallholder farmers to
Collective
markets Unitary
Household
Household
Model
Model
Research issues
 What types of markets are women
Non Co-operative Cooperative
Common welfare
accessing / not accessing and why? function
Pooling of resources
 What is the distributional impact of
Head is altruist
participation in different livestock
value chains? Individual autonomy
Choice of acting a
Individual
preferences individuals or join
 What lessons can we learn from
Sub-economies “mine, yours, ours
evidence on key ingredients of an
effective approach for linking women Measure impacts
at household Measure impacts at
farmers to markets level individual level

5.  In Kenya, men owned 10 times
more cattle than women; for
every 1 goat owned by women,
men owned 4 goats
 In Tanzania, men owned 18
times more cattle than women;
for every 1 goat owned by
women, men owned 14 goats;
men owned one and a half times
more improved chicken than
women

6. Kenya 100% Tanzania
100%
80%
80%
% of households
60% 60%
40%
40%
20%
0% 20%
0%
Chicken Eggs Cattle Milk Shoats Honey
Men Women Joint Men
 High participation of women in sale of livestock products (eggs and
milk) and very low participation in sale of livestock
(cattle, sheep, goats)
 Women access less types of markets, more often farm gate due to
constraints in time and mobility, transport assets etc. These markets
have lower prices

7. 100%
Kenya
 In Kenya, low income
80%
management by
60% women across species
40%
and products
20%
0%
Chicken Eggs Cattle Milk Shoats Honey
Men Women Joint  Similar patterns in
Tanzania but more
Tanzania management of income
100% from milk and honey
% income share
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
Chicken Eggs Cattle Milk Shoats Honey Total
Men Women Jointly

8. % income share to women
100
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
0
Farmgate-Other…
Farmgate- other…
Farmgate-Traders
Chicken
Farmgate- traders
Delivered to…
Chicken
Delivered to…
Farmgate-Other…
Farmgate- other…
Farmgate-Traders
Eggs
Eggs
Delivered to…
Delivered to…
Farmgate- other…
Farmgate-Other…
Farmgate- traders
Farmgate-Traders
Kenya
Village market
Sheep and goats Village market
Tanzania
Sheep and goats
Farmgate-Other… Farmgate- other…
Honey
Honey
Delivered to… Farmgate- traders
Farmgate-Other… Farmgate- other…
Sales
Cattle
Farmgate-Traders Farmgate- traders
Cattle Sales
Farmgate-Other… Village market
Farmgate-Traders Farmgate- other…
Milk
Milk
Delivered to… Delivered to…
traders
markets or
share when
delivered to
at farm gate
cattle due to
sold at village
higher income
• Differences less
clear for sales of
product was sold
sheep, goats and
compared to when
• Women managed a
ownership patterns

9. Tanzania
120
Kenya
100
100
90 80
% income share to women
80
70
60 60
50
40
30 40
20
10
0 20
Men
Men
Men
Men
Men
Men
Women
Women
Women
Women
Women
Women
0
Men
Men
Men
Men
Men
Men
Women
Women
Women
Women
Women
Women
Honey Chicken Eggs Sheep Cattle Milk
and Sales
Cattle Milk Chicken Eggs Sheep and Honey
goats
Sales goats
• When women sold (physically or did the transaction), they
managed a higher income share (for both products and species)

10.  In Tanzania, income
share to women was
lower for high income
products and higher
for low income
products
1600 35  Research in Malawi
1400 30 showing income
management by
Total amount (USD)
1200
% share of women
25
women declining as
1000
20
800
enterprise earns more
15
600
money
10
400
200 5
0 0
2003/4 2004/5 2005/6 2006/7

11.  Approaches that build capacity of women farmers to understand
markets-financial literacy, negotiation skills, access to
inputs, information and supportive policies
 Profitable and sustainable to avoid engaging women’s time in
non-profitable enterprises
 Address women’s specific constraints and opportunities e.g
access to credit, inputs and output markets etc
 Multiple types of markets-formal or informal, away or farm gate to
allow for choice and different women’s circumstances
 Empowering—women can make choices about enterprises, types
of markets etc
 Engage men and women to achieve broader changes in gender
relations –avoid male appropriation
 Build on collectives ensuring that these can benefit from
engagement
 Evaluate impacts at both individual and household level

12.  The Goal of Pathways is to increase poor women farmers’
productivity and empowerment in more equitable agriculture
systems at scale.
 Working with 11000 collectives in six countries-
India, Bangladesh, Tanzania, Malawi, Ghana and Mali
Figure 2: KEY COMPONENTS OF THE PATHWAYS PROGRAM’S GOAL
MORE SECURE AND RESILIENT
LIVELIHOODS
(FOOD AND NUTRITION SECURITY,
COPING AND ADAPTING ABILITY)
PRODUCTIVITY EQUITY EMPOWERMENT
(includes profitability)

13. Thank you for your attention