IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/cfcp15/344281.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Gender Productivity Gap in Farmer-led Irrigation in the Upper East Region of Ghana

Author

Listed:
  • Abarike, Mercy Apuswin
  • Liebenehm, Sabine
  • Weyori, Alirah Emmanuel
  • Akuriba, Margaret Atosina
  • Dittoh, Saa
  • Kasei, Raymond Abudu

Abstract

In this paper, we explore whether and to what extent there are disparities in vegetable productivity among female and male farmers practicing small-scale irrigation systems in the Upper East Region of Ghana, and what factors seem to drive the disparities. To do so, we use a cross-sectional data set that comprises 58 women and 192 men from 24 communities, gathered between September 2022 and February 2023 and employ Ordinary Least Square regression with community fixed effects, Oaxaca-Blinder and Recentered Influence Function decomposition analyses. Results show a statistically significant gender gap across the entire productivity distribution, except for the 80th and 90th productivity percentile, whereby the gender difference ranges between 56.9% to even 103.3% to the detriment of women producers. On average, this disadvantage amounts to approximately $987.42 per ha. The decomposition analyses further suggest that the gender gap is rather due to differences in the level than in the returns to resources. The gender gap could, hence, be significantly reduced if women would be able to operate the same size of cultivated land as men. Furthermore, overcoming structural disadvantages in terms of labor, knowledge, and liquidity may help women generate the same returns from the factors as men.

Suggested Citation

  • Abarike, Mercy Apuswin & Liebenehm, Sabine & Weyori, Alirah Emmanuel & Akuriba, Margaret Atosina & Dittoh, Saa & Kasei, Raymond Abudu, 2024. "Gender Productivity Gap in Farmer-led Irrigation in the Upper East Region of Ghana," IAAE 2024 Conference, August 2-7, 2024, New Delhi, India 344281, International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE).
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:cfcp15:344281
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.344281
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/344281/files/21630.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.344281?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. 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.
    2. Gbemisola Oseni & Paul Corral & Markus Goldstein & Paul Winters, 2015. "Explaining gender differentials in agricultural production in Nigeria," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 46(3), pages 285-310, May.
    3. Ben Jann, 2008. "The Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition for linear regression models," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 8(4), pages 453-479, December.
    4. Barbara Van Koppen & Lesley Hope & Willem Colenbrander, 2013. "Gender aspects of smallholder private groundwater irrigation in Ghana and Zambia," Water International, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(6), pages 840-851, October.
    5. Fernando Rios-Avila, 2020. "Recentered influence functions (RIFs) in Stata: RIF regression and RIF decomposition," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 20(1), pages 51-94, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Vanya Slavchevska, 2015. "Gender differences in agricultural productivity: the case of Tanzania," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 46(3), pages 335-355, May.
    2. Fukase,Emiko & Kim,Yeon Soo & Chiarella,Cristina Andrea, 2022. "Exploring the Sources of the Agricultural Productivity Gender Gap : Evidence from Sri Lanka," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10025, The World Bank.
    3. Kwabena Nyarko Addai & Wencong Lu & Omphile Temoso, 2021. "Are Female Rice Farmers Less Productive than Male Farmers? Micro-evidence from Ghana," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 33(6), pages 1997-2039, December.
    4. Mukasa Adamon N. & Adeleke Oluwole Salami, 2016. "Working Paper 231 - Gender productivity differentials among smallholder farmers in Africa: A cross-country comparison," Working Paper Series 2324, African Development Bank.
    5. 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.
    6. Oscar Molina Tejerina & Luis Castro Peñarrieta, 2020. "Unexplained Wage Gaps in the Tradable and Nontradable Sectors: Cross-Sectional Evidence by Gender in Bolivia," Investigación & Desarrollo, Universidad Privada Boliviana, vol. 20(1), pages 5-23.
    7. Cheryl R. Doss & Agnes R. Quisumbing, 2020. "Understanding rural household behavior: Beyond Boserup and Becker," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 51(1), pages 47-58, January.
    8. Teresa Cappelli & Luca Tiberti & Elisa Ticci, 2023. "Climate, women's resilience and mediating channels in rural Benin," Working Papers - Economics wp2023_08.rdf, Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Scienze per l'Economia e l'Impresa.
    9. Appau, Samuelson & Awaworyi Churchill, Sefa & Smyth, Russell & Trinh, Trong-Anh, 2021. "The long-term impact of the Vietnam War on agricultural productivity," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    10. de la O Campos, Ana Paula & Covarrubias, Katia Alejandra & Prieto Patron, Alberto, 2016. "How Does the Choice of the Gender Indicator Affect the Analysis of Gender Differences in Agricultural Productivity? Evidence from Uganda," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 17-33.
    11. Carlos J Gil-Hernández & Guillem Vidal & Sergio Torrejón Perez, 2024. "Technological Change, Tasks and Class Inequality in Europe," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 38(3), pages 826-851, June.
    12. Tanguy Bernard & Jessica Hoel & Melissa Hidrobo & Maha Ashour, 2017. "Productive inefficiency in dairy farming and cooperation between spouses, evidence from Senegal," Working Papers hal-02146159, HAL.
    13. Himaz, Rozana & Aturupane, Harsha, 2021. "Why are boys falling behind? Explaining gender gaps in school attainment in Sri Lanka," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    14. Cheryl Doss, 2015. "Women and Agricultural Productivity: What Does the Evidence Tell Us?," Working Papers 1051, Economic Growth Center, Yale University.
    15. Aboubacry Kane & Mouhamadou M. Aidara, 2024. "Differences in Agricultural Productivity Among Women and Men on Small-Scale Farms in Senegal: Contributions of Agricultural Innovations," Journal of Agricultural Science, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 14(5), pages 1-1, April.
    16. Marenya, Paswel & Kassie, Menale & Jaleta, Moti & Rahut, Dil Bahadur, 2015. "Does gender of the household head explain smallholder farmers' maize market positions? Evidence from Ethiopia," 2015 Conference, August 9-14, 2015, Milan, Italy 212229, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    17. Yevessé DANDONOUGBO & Esso-hanam ATAKE & Djinta LITAABA-AKILA & Dédé KOUEVIDJIN, 2023. "Closing the income gap between male and female agricultural workers: the role of women empowerment in Togo's rural areas," Region et Developpement, Region et Developpement, LEAD, Universite du Sud - Toulon Var, vol. 57, pages 63-80.
    18. Araar, Abdelkrim, 2021. "The Gender Gap in Smallholder Agricultural Productivity: The Case of Cameroon," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315902, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    19. Sydney Gourlay & Talip Kilic, 2023. "Is dirt cheap? The economic costs of failing to meet soil health requirements on smallholder farms," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 54(6), pages 793-818, November.
    20. Taiwo Aderemi & Ibrahim Alley, 2019. "Gender pay gap in the workplace: the case of public and private sectors in Nigeria," Journal of Social and Economic Development, Springer;Institute for Social and Economic Change, vol. 21(2), pages 370-391, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Productivity Analysis;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:cfcp15:344281. 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: https://iaae-agecon.org/ .

    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.