Transcript MGBA_A Poor Farmers Initiative - Gender and Agriculture

The Meru Goat Breeders’
Association (MGBA): A Poor
Farmers’ Empowerment
Initiative
Elizabeth Waithanji, Jemimah Njuki, Samuel Mburu, Juliet Kariuki, and Frederick Njeru
Overview: I – Women, livestock and Markets
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 Women manage most livestock in Kenya
 Livestock constitute an important asset for the rural poor,
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70% of who are women (DFID 2000)
Women may make decisions on stock and product disposal
and how to spend resultant income
Women’s control is, however, constrained in terms of access
to land, capital, information, and marketing opportunities
Women’s control often declines with increase in productivity,
often associated with commercialization and market
formalization (Kergria et al 2010).
It is still unclear the kinds of benefits women accrue from
livestock and livestock markets (Kristjanson et al 2010)
II: Meru Goat Breeders’ Association (MGBA)
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 Rationale of intervention – farmers can improve their own lives with very little
intervention if the outside support is within their social and economic context
(Peacock 1996)
 Purpose of intervention – to create wealth and improve household nutrition in
marginal divisions of Meru by giving farmers small stock and building their
capacity in management and animal health
 Intervention by Farm Africa and Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development
 In three phases between 1996 – 2003
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Phase 1 (1996 – 98):Increase productivity of existing flocks (by improving
husbandry and healthcare delivery)
Phase 2 (1999 – 02): Introduce high producer dairy goat breeders to
strengthen breeding program
Phase 3 (2002 – 03): Enhance community management capacity for project
sustainability by forming and strengthening an MGBA secretariat
Study Objective, Questions and Output
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 Objective
 To compare participation of, and benefits attained, by women and men within
the MGBA program, in live goat and milk marketing
 Questions
 Where do women benefit the most and the least in the value chain, in terms of
the following?
 Division of labour in production and marketing
 Gendered differences in market preferences
 Gendered differences in access to goats and milk and their income because
of differences in decision making; access to and use of production and other
technologies; and participation at different stages of the value chain
 Outputs
 Identify strategies of facilitating greater participation of women and men in
the dairy goat value chain in order to attain equitable benefits (e.g. narrow the
gender asset gap) from marketing both the breeding stock and milk
Study area and Methodology
Data collected
Market map of Meru
Qualitative:
•FGDs, KI-interviews, farmer case
studies
Site (Meru Central) characteristics:
High agricultural potential; mixed crop
and livestock production system;
market access 4 hours or less
Quantitative:
•Household surveys (n=39; 20
MGBA and 19 non MGBA
households
•2 modules – Male household
heads and female spouses
interviewed)
Data analysis:
•STATA, SPSS, and descriptive
statistic
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Results and discussion
Division of labour in Production and Marketing
•Women participate more in production than
marketing
•Where women participate in marketing, the outlet is
informal – mainly neighbors, and the value of
commodity is low
•From these value chain maps, it is clear that men
control the sale of milk and breeding stock in the
formal market.
Dairy
•Women provide 90% of the labor at
milk production, domestic
consumption and sale to neighbors.
•Participation disappears (0 – 25%)
with entry into the formal market
Breeding Stock
•Women only participate at the
production level and do 50% of the
work. The breeding stock is highly
valuable (up to Ksh28,000 / USD360
a 6 – 9 mo purebred kid)
Gendered Differences in Market Preferences
and Household Incomes
Production/ Market Preferences
Mean Annual Household Income
•FHH earned more income from stock
and milk sales than MHH
•Income from milk significantly higher (α <
0.05) for FHH than MHH
•FHH benefited from MGBA more than
MHH
4.5
4.0
3.5
3.0
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
Dairy Goats
Women
Goat milk
Men
•Women prefer producing and marketing dairy
goats as breeding stock and for milk equally
but more than men
•Men prefer producing and marketing breeding
stock more than milk because of the very high
stock value
•Women value milk highly because it is highly
nutritious
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4,500.00
4,000.00
3,500.00
3,000.00
2,500.00
2,000.00
1,500.00
1,000.00
500.00
0.00
Male-headed
Female-headed
Income from Sale of goats
Income from Sale of goat milk
Gendered Access to Production and Marketing Information in Male Headed Households
Marketing
Production
Radio
Open days
NGOs convening
Extension services
Govt institutes
Cooperative/group…
Other farmers
Extension services
NGOs convening
Open days
Radio
Govt institutes
Other farmers
Cooperative/group…
0
10
Women Percent
20
30
40
0
50
Women Percent
Men Percent
20
40
60
Men Percent
•Overall, production information was more accessible than marketing
information to both men and women
•Men had more access to marketing information than women
•For both production and marketing information, other farmers were the
main source followed by cooperatives or groups
•Women depended on other farmers more than men for both
production and marketing information, and much more for marketing
information
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Who manages income
70.00%
60.00%
•In MHH women managed more income
from the sale of goats and milk than the
men
•Only income from goat sales was
managed jointly
•The MGBA project was empowering
women more than men in MHH
50.00%
40.00%
30.00%
20.00%
10.00%
0.00%
Household head
Spouse
Breeding goats
Head and spouse
jointly
Goat milk
Group Membership
6,000.00
•Group members earned significantly higher
incomes from both milk and breeding stock sales
than non group members
•The project was empowering group members
more than non group members
5,000.00
4,000.00
3,000.00
2,000.00
1,000.00
0.00
Sale of goats
Non Member
Sale of goat milk
Group Member
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Conclusion
Benefits
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 Group and non group members, men and women, all benefited
from the project
 FHH benefited more than MHH from goat milk (significantly)
and breeding stock sales as a result of the MGBA intervention
 Within the MHH, the female spouse controlled more income
than the male head from both the sale of milk and the breeding
stock
 Group members earned significantly higher incomes from milk
and breeding stock sales than non group members
Strategies
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MGBA’s approach of targeting the poorest goat owners already
belonging to groups helped reduce the gender asset gap
Nutritional superiority of goat milk may have enhanced women’s
participation in the project
Presence of informal market outlets enhanced participation of women
Lesson / Recommendation:
In order to maximize benefits, the marketing and management
capacity within MGBA secretariat and membership should have
been built from the onset of the project rather than in the last year
Extension information on production seems to be more accessible than
information on marketing
Acknowledgements
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1.
MGBA officials, members, and non-MGBA
member farmers for participating in the study
2. FARM Africa for providing background
information and necessary contacts
3. Ford Foundation and IDRC for funding the
study
THANK YOU!