The role of women empowerment and labour dependency on adoption of integrated soil fertility management in Malawi

Mponela, Powell; Villamor, Grace B.; Snapp, Sieglinde S.; Tamene, Lulseged; Le, Quang Bao; Borgemeister, Christian

doi:10.1111/sum.12627

Cited by 15 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…Similar findings of gendered social capital on fertilisation were made by Njuki et al (2008), who found that when husbands value and consider the contribution of women to decision making, the household's likelihood to purchase and use inorganic fertilizer increases. The positive influence on manuring however is in sharp contrast to earlier studies that found women in disfavour of manure because its labour requirements are not in sync with household chores (Mponela et al 2020).…”

Section: Isfm Adoptioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

“…A similar study in southern Africa found that labour constraints affect the adoption of inorganic fertilizer, FYM and residues as a component combination (Mponela et al 2016). The increasing number of children and old household members that the adult worker must look after has been found to put enormous pressure on them, affecting the adoption of labour demanding technologies such as SWC in east and southern Africa (Mponela et al 2020). Apart from addressing gender and youth inclusivity, the ISFM technologies must reduce drudgery as youth dependency ratios are still high in sub-Saharan Africa (UN 2020).…”

Section: Isfm Adoptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Participatory Action Research, Social Networks, and Gender Influence Soil Fertility Management in Tanzania

Mponela

Manda

Kinyua

et al. 2022

Syst Pract Action Res

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Transformation of knowledge systems and fostering learning among smallholder farmers such as through participatory action research (PAR) is key to agricultural growth in rural sub-Saharan Africa. We investigate how PAR influences uptake/use of integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) while accounting for gendered, bonding and bridging social capital. Stratified by engagement in a mother-baby PAR and by resource endowments, 607 smallholder farmers were sampled from northern Tanzania. Binary logistic and multinomial logit models revealed that full engagement in PAR was associated with early adoption of inorganic fertilizers, either as a dichotomous decision or an ISFM bundle with improved varieties, organic matter inputs and soil and water conservation. Bonding social capital through cooperatives, farmer groups, and farmer-farmer local networks supports soil and water conservation, especially among resource-poor farmers. Among the high-resource farmers, increased women’s bargaining power in farm input purchases supports fertilizer and manure use while increased bargaining power in livestock tending supports crop residue incorporation. ISFM usage is constrained by age of decision-makers and a higher number of dependents per worker while education level and farm sizes increase its likelihood. In the resource-constrained, with low extension and technical support, and men-dominated patrilineal farming systems of Africa, the study places PAR, social networks, and gender inclusivity as key approaches for improving smallholder’ ISFM.

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Section: Isfm Adoptioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

Section: Isfm Adoptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Participatory Action Research, Social Networks, and Gender Influence Soil Fertility Management in Tanzania

Mponela

Manda

Kinyua

et al. 2022

Syst Pract Action Res

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This dependency burden on investment is consistent with a similar study in Ghana who found that households with a high dependency ratio made significantly fewer investments in water management than adopters [36]. The extending strategy can regulate dependency ratio forming households with greater productive capacity, due to larger labor forces, and hence the potential for superior economic performance and family household composition is described as a concomitant of application of extending strategies [37].…”

Section: Socio-economic Characteristics and Cultivation Patternsupporting

confidence: 86%

Characteristics and Readiness of Oil Palm Households for Replanting Program: Is an Empowerment Program Needed?

Novra¹,

Yogaswara²,

Abubakar³

2021

Technium

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This article describes a new idea of how the level of intervention in household empowerment policies is based on an empirical study of the magnitude of the negative impact of the smallholder palm oil replanting (SPR) program. One of the negative impacts of this program is the temporary loss of income (TLI) for farmer households due to the cessation of production of oil palm fruit bunches. The household survey research was conducted in three village centers for smallholder oil palm plantations in Jambi Province, Indonesia. The research result shows that the average potential TLI in each household if replanting palm oil is carried out is IDR 2,364,644/ month (equivalent to 74.55% of the oil palm household income or 39.78% of the regional economy), Purwodadi Village is the village most vulnerable to regional economic disturbances due to the high potential for TLI, reaching 99.43% of the oil palm household income and 67.06% of the regional economy. The level of TLI is influenced by factors of age and area of old oil palm plants, the proportion of households that will undergo the replanting process, and the level of dependence of regions on oil palm. Based on the results of the research, it can be concluded that there is still a need for innovation and expansion of empowerment to encourage household readiness in facing the SPR program.

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“…Bernier et al (2015) found that women are much less informed than men about climate-smart practices in Kenya, and this affects their ability to invest in such practices; when they are informed, they adopt practices at the same rates as men. Mponela et al (2021) found a more nuanced relationship depending on the NRM practice. A positive relationship was found between women's empowerment (participation in decision-making domains) and adoption of legumes, a negative relationship with manure, and a statistically insignificant relationship with mineral fertilizer.…”

Section: Constraints and Benefits Are Different For Men And Womenmentioning

confidence: 96%

Sustaining Natural Resources in African Agriculture: What Have We Learned in the Past Two Decades?

Place

2022

Emerging-Economy State and International Policy Studies

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Calls for increased attention to natural resource management (NRM) in African agriculture have been around for many decades. They became more vocal around the turn of the century following decades of poor yield growth and emerging data showing concerns about land quality and productivity. In recent years, these intensified further with the specter of climate change and continuing rural population growth challenging agricultural systems on the continent. Researchers have responded to these challenges, advancing research frameworks and hypotheses, deploying more research tools, and conducting more studies. However, it is unclear that all this response has significantly advanced our state of knowledge on the extent and nature of land degradation in agricultural land, the particular practices that work in different socioeconomic contexts, and how best to induce their uptake by households facing different priorities and constraints. This chapter will motivate this conclusion and offer options for moving forward in some of these topical areas.

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The role of women empowerment and labour dependency on adoption of integrated soil fertility management in Malawi

Abstract: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.

Cited by 15 publications

References 46 publications

Participatory Action Research, Social Networks, and Gender Influence Soil Fertility Management in Tanzania

Participatory Action Research, Social Networks, and Gender Influence Soil Fertility Management in Tanzania

Characteristics and Readiness of Oil Palm Households for Replanting Program: Is an Empowerment Program Needed?

Sustaining Natural Resources in African Agriculture: What Have We Learned in the Past Two Decades?

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