Determinants of farmer empowerment in agriculture in Kenya: A Tobit approach

Empowerment in agriculture plays an important role in improving food and nutrition security. Understanding the determinants of farmer empowerment in agriculture is vital in improving the targeting of key indicators that matter for policy and practice. Most of the existing studies focus on female emp...

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Main Authors: Henry Muli Mwololo, Jonathan Makau Nzuma, Lilian Mugure Githinji
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2022-12-01
Series:Heliyon
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405844022031760
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author Henry Muli Mwololo
Jonathan Makau Nzuma
Lilian Mugure Githinji
author_facet Henry Muli Mwololo
Jonathan Makau Nzuma
Lilian Mugure Githinji
author_sort Henry Muli Mwololo
collection DOAJ
description Empowerment in agriculture plays an important role in improving food and nutrition security. Understanding the determinants of farmer empowerment in agriculture is vital in improving the targeting of key indicators that matter for policy and practice. Most of the existing studies focus on female empowerment, leaving out the equally important aspect of male empowerment. We compute empowerment in agriculture index for male and female farmers and assess its determinants by applying the Tobit and Logit models on cross-sectional data of 835 farmers in Kenya. We find that only 11% of the farmers were empowered, 5% of whom were female. Econometric results show that gender had a positive and significant association with empowerment in agriculture and male and female farmers benefited to varying extents even from the same determinants. Thus, empowerment initiatives should compensate for such differences by targeting male and female farmers. Moreover, commercialization, access to government extension services and value of assets were positively and significantly associated with empowerment in agriculture indicating extra pathways through which empowerment in agriculture could be enhanced.
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spelling doaj.art-9c470f9eb07546ccb3acd1bfe9fc00d22023-01-05T08:37:17ZengElsevierHeliyon2405-84402022-12-01812e11888Determinants of farmer empowerment in agriculture in Kenya: A Tobit approachHenry Muli Mwololo0Jonathan Makau Nzuma1Lilian Mugure Githinji2Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Nairobi - Kenya. P.O. Box 29053 – 00625 Nairobi, Kenya; Corresponding author.Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Nairobi - Kenya. P.O. Box 29053 – 00625 Nairobi, KenyaAlliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), Kampala, UgandaEmpowerment in agriculture plays an important role in improving food and nutrition security. Understanding the determinants of farmer empowerment in agriculture is vital in improving the targeting of key indicators that matter for policy and practice. Most of the existing studies focus on female empowerment, leaving out the equally important aspect of male empowerment. We compute empowerment in agriculture index for male and female farmers and assess its determinants by applying the Tobit and Logit models on cross-sectional data of 835 farmers in Kenya. We find that only 11% of the farmers were empowered, 5% of whom were female. Econometric results show that gender had a positive and significant association with empowerment in agriculture and male and female farmers benefited to varying extents even from the same determinants. Thus, empowerment initiatives should compensate for such differences by targeting male and female farmers. Moreover, commercialization, access to government extension services and value of assets were positively and significantly associated with empowerment in agriculture indicating extra pathways through which empowerment in agriculture could be enhanced.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405844022031760DomainEmpowermentLogitTobit
spellingShingle Henry Muli Mwololo
Jonathan Makau Nzuma
Lilian Mugure Githinji
Determinants of farmer empowerment in agriculture in Kenya: A Tobit approach
Heliyon
Domain
Empowerment
Logit
Tobit
title Determinants of farmer empowerment in agriculture in Kenya: A Tobit approach
title_full Determinants of farmer empowerment in agriculture in Kenya: A Tobit approach
title_fullStr Determinants of farmer empowerment in agriculture in Kenya: A Tobit approach
title_full_unstemmed Determinants of farmer empowerment in agriculture in Kenya: A Tobit approach
title_short Determinants of farmer empowerment in agriculture in Kenya: A Tobit approach
title_sort determinants of farmer empowerment in agriculture in kenya a tobit approach
topic Domain
Empowerment
Logit
Tobit
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405844022031760
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AT jonathanmakaunzuma determinantsoffarmerempowermentinagricultureinkenyaatobitapproach
AT lilianmuguregithinji determinantsoffarmerempowermentinagricultureinkenyaatobitapproach