IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ags/afgend/246033.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A crop of one's own? Women’s experiences of cassava commercialization in Nigeria and Malawi

Author

Listed:
  • Forsythe, Lora
  • Posthummus, Helena
  • Martin, Adrienne

Abstract

Improving the effectiveness of agricultural markets for economic growth and poverty reduction has been a central focus for development initiatives, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. Staple crops with low input requirements and drought tolerance, such as cassava, are being promoted for market development due to their accessibility for poor smallholder farmers. Narratives often equate commercialization of cassava to benefits for women, as cassava is commonly labelled a ‘women’s crop’. However, little is known about whether or how women can engage with new cassava commercial opportunities and the livelihood outcomes from this, particularly given the importance of cassava for food security. Findings from fieldwork in Nigeria and Malawi identify cassava value chains that offer different opportunities and challenges for women, which are often overlooked in agricultural development narratives. Women can gainfully participate in new commercial cassava opportunities while maintaining, if not increasing, food security. However, this is highly dependent on gender norms and household relations. Greater attention is required to these more difficult aspects of gender analysis in development projects to ensure women’s integration and benefit from agricultural markets.

Suggested Citation

  • Forsythe, Lora & Posthummus, Helena & Martin, Adrienne, 2016. "A crop of one's own? Women’s experiences of cassava commercialization in Nigeria and Malawi," Journal of Gender, Agriculture and Food Security (Agri-Gender), Africa Centre for Gender, Social Research and Impact Assessment, vol. 1(2).
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:afgend:246033
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.246033
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/246033/files/JGAFS-122016-6-Paper.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.246033?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Coles, Christopher & Mitchell, Jonathan, 2011. "Gender and agricultural value chains: A review of current knowledge and practice and their policy implications," ESA Working Papers 289016, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Agricultural Development Economics Division (ESA).
    2. Kiriti, Tabitha & Tisdell, Clement A., 2003. "Commercialisation of Agriculture in Kenya: Case Study of Policy Bias and Food Purchases by Farm Households," Social Economics, Policy and Development Working Papers 105584, University of Queensland, School of Economics.
    3. Udry, Christopher, 1996. "Gender, Agricultural Production, and the Theory of the Household," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 104(5), pages 1010-1046, October.
    4. von Braun, Joachim, 1995. "Agricultural commercialization: impacts on income and nutrition and implications for policy," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 187-202, June.
    5. World Bank, 2012. "World Development Report 2012 [Rapport sur le développement dans le monde 2012]," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 4391.
    6. Rebecca Pearse & Raewyn Connell, 2016. "Gender Norms and the Economy: Insights from Social Research," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(1), pages 30-53, January.
    7. World Bank & Food and Agriculture Organization & International Fund for Agricultural Development, 2009. "Gender in Agriculture Sourcebook [Agricultura y desarrollo rural : manual sobre género en agricultura]," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 6603.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Suchi Kapoor Malhotra & Ashrita Saran & Sabina Singh & Swati Mantri & Neha Gupta & Ratika Bhandari & Howard White & Ranjitha Puskur & Sarah Young & Hugh Waddington & Edoardo Masset, 2023. "PROTOCOL: Value chain interventions for improving women's economic empowerment: A mixed‐method systematic review," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(3), September.
    2. Tsusaka, Takuji W. & Orr, Alastair & Msere, Harry W. & Homann-KeeTui, Sabine & Maimisa, Penias & Twanje, Gift H. & Botha, Rosemary, 2016. "Do Commercialization and Mechanization of a “Women’s Crop” Disempower Women Farmers? Evidence from Zambia and Malawi," 2016 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Boston, Massachusetts 235885, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    3. Hannah Gichungi & Beatrice Muriithi & Patrick Irungu & Gracious Diiro & John Busienei, 2021. "Effect of Technological Innovation on Gender Roles: The Case of Fruit Fly IPM Adoption on Women’s Decision-Making in Mango Production and Marketing in Kenya," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 33(3), pages 407-426, June.
    4. Walther, Olivier J. & Tenikue, Michel & Trémolières, Marie, 2019. "Economic performance, gender and social networks in West African food systems," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 1-1.
    5. Hannah Gichungi & Beatrice Muriithi & Patrick Irungu & Gracious Diiro & John Busienei, 0. "Effect of Technological Innovation on Gender Roles: The Case of Fruit Fly IPM Adoption on Women’s Decision-Making in Mango Production and Marketing in Kenya," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 0, pages 1-20.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Feyertag, Joseph & Childress, Malcolm & Langdown, Ian & Locke, Anna & Nizalov, Denys, 2021. "How does gender affect the perceived security of land and property rights? Evidence from 33 countries," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    2. Pierotti, Rachael S. & Friedson-Ridenour, Sophia & Olayiwola, Olubukola, 2022. "Women farm what they can manage: How time constraints affect the quantity and quality of labor for married women’s agricultural production in southwestern Nigeria," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    3. Kilic, Talip & Palacios-López, Amparo & Goldstein, Markus, 2015. "Caught in a Productivity Trap: A Distributional Perspective on Gender Differences in Malawian Agriculture," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 416-463.
    4. Alkire, Sabina & Meinzen-Dick, Ruth & Peterman, Amber & Quisumbing, Agnes & Seymour, Greg & Vaz, Ana, 2013. "The Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 71-91.
    5. Kieran, Caitlin, 2021. "Do Property Rights Affect the Efficiency and Intrahousehold Labor Allocations of Rural Ethiopian Households?," 2021 Annual Meeting, August 1-3, Austin, Texas 313971, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    6. Andre Croppenstedt & Markus Goldstein & Nina Rosas, 2013. "Gender and Agriculture: Inefficiencies, Segregation, and Low Productivity Traps," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 28(1), pages 79-109, February.
    7. T. S. Mnimbo & J. Lyimo-Macha & J. K. Urassa & H. F. Mahoo & S. D. Tumbo & F. Graef, 2017. "Influence of gender on roles, choices of crop types and value chain upgrading strategies in semi-arid and sub-humid Tanzania," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 9(6), pages 1173-1187, December.
    8. Rosangela Bando, 2019. "Evidence-based gender equality policy and pay in Latin America and the Caribbean: progress and challenges," Latin American Economic Review, Springer;Centro de Investigaciòn y Docencia Económica (CIDE), vol. 28(1), pages 1-23, December.
    9. Ali, Daniel & Bowen, Derick & Deininger, Klaus & Duponchel, Marguerite, 2016. "Investigating the Gender Gap in Agricultural Productivity: Evidence from Uganda," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 152-170.
    10. Maria Fay Rola‐Rubzen & Thelma Paris & Jacob Hawkins & Bibek Sapkota, 2020. "Improving Gender Participation in Agricultural Technology Adoption in Asia: From Rhetoric to Practical Action," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 42(1), pages 113-125, March.
    11. Joseph Deutsch & Jacques Silber, 2017. "Does women's empowerment affect the health of children?: The case of Mozambique," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2017-211, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    12. Beath, Andrew & Christia, Fotini & Enikolopov, Ruben, 2013. "Empowering Women through Development Aid: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Afghanistan," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 107(3), pages 540-557, August.
    13. Beath, Andrew & Christia, Fotini & Enikolopov, Ruben, 2012. "Empowering women : evidence from a field experiment in Afghanistan," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6269, The World Bank.
    14. Ben Jones, 2018. "‘A More Receptive Crowd than Before’: Explaining the World Bank’s Gender Turn in the 2000s," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 18(3), pages 172-188, July.
    15. Dzanku, Fred M., 2015. "Household-specific food price differentials and high-value crop production in rural Ghana," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 73-82.
    16. Rijkers, Bob & Costa, Rita, 2012. "Gender and Rural Non-Farm Entrepreneurship," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(12), pages 2411-2426.
    17. Kassie, Menale & Ndiritu, Simon Wagura & Stage, Jesper, 2014. "What Determines Gender Inequality in Household Food Security in Kenya? Application of Exogenous Switching Treatment Regression," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 153-171.
    18. de Brauw, Alan, 2014. "Gender, control, and crop choice in northern Mozambique:," IFPRI discussion papers 1333, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    19. Bibler, Sarah & Zuckerman, Elaine, 2013. "The Care Connection: The World Bank and Women's Unpaid Care Work in Select Sub-Saharan African Countries," WIDER Working Paper Series 131, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    20. Ida Arff Tarjem & Ola Tveitereid Westengen & Poul Wisborg & Katharina Glaab, 2023. "“Whose demand?” The co-construction of markets, demand and gender in development-oriented crop breeding," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 40(1), pages 83-100, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:afgend:246033. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://agrigender.net/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.