Gender Participation in Commercial Horticulture:A Case Study of Kgatleng District

N. Chikuba and P. M. Makepe

Women Economic Empowerment Seminar, UB, BITRI,SLU & Doclinks Programme

Outline

Introduction, background & motivation

Objectives

Methodology

Data

Results

Possible solutions

Introduction

To diversify its economy, several policies, programmes and initiatives to empower local entrepreneurs in the agriculture sector were instituted. The NADP of 1991, focused on agrarian reform, and replaced the food self sufficiency goal with the concept of food security

Why horticulture?

During the NDP 9, production of vegetables per demand increases from 20% to 40% (Anon, 2008/2009)

Improving participation in commercial horticulture can help the country meet the national demand, creating jobs and reduce money spent on imports

Problem Statement

• About 55% of the population in rural areas earn income below the poverty line, with females headed households making up 41% of those living in poverty as opposed to 34% of male headed households (Coalition, 2002).

• With the inability of the formal sector to create sufficient job opportunities in Botswana entrepreneurship one option.

• The participation of women entrepreneurship in commercial horticulture industry promotes gender empowerment, creation of employment opportunities, improvement of household incomes and poverty alleviation.

• This points to the need to address issues of gender in the commercial horticulture industry in Botswana.

Why women?

• Historically women have shared in the labor, management and decisions of the farm but they practiced this at a subsistence level.

• By improving these skills commercial horticulture can be an entrepreneurial opportunity for them to engage in and help raise their standard of living above the poverty line.

Specific objectives:

1) Identify and examine the factors which constrain and enable women entrepreneurship participation in commercial horticulture

2) To compare performance of male owned commercial horticultural farm and female owned commercial horticultural farms regarding; employment creation, productivity

3) Recommend possible solutions, which could lead to improvement of women’s participation in the horticulture

Data

For this analysis, the sample was restricted to both women and men farmers who currently have ownership of a commercial horticultural farm in Kgatleng

50 projects randomly selected for the study. 5 declined to participate in the study while another 5 could not be located. 40 farmers were interviewed. 30 women and 20 men.

Data Analysis

• Descriptive Statistics; were used to describe the data collected included the use of percentages and frequency distribution tables to analyze the data on selected personal and socio-economic characteristics of women.

• Econometric method, a Probit Model was used to analyze the relationship between selected socio-economic characteristics of the respondent women and their participation in commercial horticulture production. Marginal effects were also computed to determine magnitude of the effect.

Level of Education of The Respondents

Non-formal education Primary education Secondary education Tertiary education0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

FEMALEMALE

Source of

credit

facility

 

MALE

 

FEMALE

Total

number of

respondents

ISPAAD 3 3 6

YDF 4 0 4

Personal

Savings

18 6 24

Loan 0 4 4

Table 2: Source of credit Facility

Age and gender of farm owners in commercial horticulture industry

24-29 30-35 36-41 42-47 48-53 54-59 60+0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

FemalesMale

Explanatory variables and hypothesized relationships

Explanatory Variables Definition and how measured

Age and age squared This is defined as the age of individuals who part of the respondents --- inverted “U” shaped relationship expected

Marital Status This is defined as a dummy, taking the value of 1 if one is married and 0 if otherwise --- ambiguous relationship expected

Educational Level This is defined as the number of years of formal schooling (+ve)

The Presence of other income earners in the family

A dummy variable taking the value of 1 if there are other income earners in the family and O if not (+ve)

Years of experience in farming This is defined as the number of years the respondent has on farming of horticultural products (+ve)

Number of children below seven years of age

Continuous variable (-ve)

Extension Services This is a dummy variable , taking the value of 1 if one has had training in horticulture and 0 if otherwise (+ve)

TABLE 1: Descriptive statistics of Variables Used In the study

Variables Observation Mean Std.Dev Min Max Age 40 42.3250 9.93153 24 68 Marital Status 40 0.5750 0.50064 0 1 Education level(years) 40 14.45 3.05 5 16 Presence of other Income 40 0.45 0.504 0 1 Experience 40 4.5625 4.45229 0.5 22 Extension services 40 0.6750 0.474 0 1 Children under 7years 40 0.70 0.758 0 2 Source: Survey data (2014)

Table 3: Results from the Probit model

Gender Participation

Coefficient Z P>|Z|

Age -0.00932 -0.03 0.978 Age squared -0.00088 -0.25 0.080 ** Marital Status 0.48536 0.52 0.050 * Education level(years) 0.14757 0.86 0.391 Presence of other Income

-0.13105 -0.18 0.860

Extension services 0.08162 0.14 0.088 ** Child care (under 7 years)

-1.71164 -3.05 0.002 *

Log likelihood: -8.8950 Number of Observations: 50 Prob>chi2 : 0.0023 Pseudo 𝑹𝟐: 0.5665 *Significant at 5% ** Significant at 10%

Table 4: Partial effects from the probit Model

Gender Participation DF/DX Z P>|Z|

Age -0.0445 -0.46 0.644

Age squared 0.000178 0.17 0.086

Marital Status 0.085 0.31 0.076

Education level(years) 0.078 1.25 0.210

Presence of other Income

-0.121 0.23 0.053

Extension services 0.0296 0.14 0.088

Childcare under 7 years

-0.337 1.98 0.034

Conclusion

• Marital status and extension services have a positive significant effect on women’s participation in horticulture

• Age squared and the presence of children under 7 in the household had a negative effect on women participation in horticulture

Possible solutions

• Training in horticulture accompanied by a strong extension service is a useful investment and good mechanism for empowering women in horticulture. Government needs to increase women’s participation on training programs for horticulture.

• Government could provide support for child care services

• Support for credit facilities and lending facilities for women, training in financial literacy

• Thank you