WOMEN’S PARTICIPATION IN AGRICULTURAL DECISION-MAKING AND HOUSEHOLD FOOD SECURITY IN CENTRAL UGANDA.
| HENRY GALIWANGO |
| EXTENSION AND INNOVATION STUDIES, MAKERERE UNIVERSITY |
| June, 2018 |
Abstract |
| Globally, women greatly contribute to the food security of their households yet access to and control over resources compromises their ability to play this role. The objectives of the study were to: (i) identify the socio-demographic and institutional factors which influence women’s participation in agricultural decision-making; and (ii) determine the influence of women’s participation in agricultural decision-making on household food security. A cross sectional survey design was used for a random sample of 135 women chosen from farming households in Luwero Sub-county. Logistic regression was used to identify the socio-demographic as well as institutional factors that influenced women’s participation in agricultural decision-making. The same model was used to identify how each aspect of women’s participation in agricultural decision-making influenced household food security. Results showed that of the institutional factors, membership of women in community groups and networks (OR 4.019; 95% CI 1.827-8.842; p=0.001) as well as their access to credit (OR 2.288; 95% CI 1.069-4.897; p=0.033) significantly predicted women’s high participation in agricultural decision-making. Two agricultural decision-making areas that predicted household food security were: purchase of inputs (OR 0.1029; 95% CI 0.01499-0.70624; p=0.021) and selling of crop produce (OR 0.1467; 95% CI 0.02837-0.75903; p=0.022). It is recommended that development agencies (especially those in agricultural extension and gender equality) should direct their efforts particularly to demonstrating to the men how greater leverage of women in decision-making can be useful in the home regarding food security issues. Supporting women who are in groups, encouraging them to participate in groups, and linking them to proper input shops as well as proper marketing information is very important in improving household food security |
