Staudt, K. 1985. Agricultural Policy Implementation: A
Case Study from Western Kenya. West Hartford,
Connecticut: Kumarian Press.
The levels of access of female-managed and jointly managed
farms to agricultural services were compared to see whether
Kenyan agricultural policy objectives had been met. In
1974/75, a sample of 212 households, 40% with female
managers, were surveyed in the Shikulu research area in
western Kenya. The outcomes were examined across three
administrative settings: Shikulu area, which has had
ordinary implementation of services; Shitoli, which has had
intensified services; and the Lirhembe Cooperative, which
has more intensive or saturate services. Female managers
received fewer on-farm visits from extension agents, were
less likely to receive formal training, and were less
knowledgeable about loans than their male counterparts on
jointly managed farms. The gap between female and joint
access in these categories narrowed as service intensified, but
this came at enormous cost and is also likely to foster
increased dependence of farmers on government agencies.
Women managers were more likely than joint managers to
learn about hybrid maize through second-hand sources,
such as neighbors and women’s groups. The author
speculates whether there might be more efficient and less
costly channels through which to aid women farmers.
Women managers are better off with only ordinary levels of
service, as long as they are able to participate in communal
networks. When given adequate support, women managers
tend to be more innovative than male managers. The study
suggests that administrative inequities (and not other factors
such as land scarcity) are a major cause of the decline in the
productivity of women farmers.
Staudt, K. 1987. Uncaptured or unmotivated? Women and
the food crisis in Africa. Rural Sociology 52: 37-55.
There has been a great deal of theorizing about the African
food crisis, although much of the academic literature had
ignored gender labor relations. This paper discusses a
gendered approach to African agriculture. Gender-
differentiated labor, incentives, and struggles over access to
resources have important implications for development. If
women continue to be systematically denied access to
resources and the benefits accrued by their additional labor
input, they will not have the means or incentives to
contribute their labor to increase production. The paper
critiques two theoretical approaches designed to explain
Africa’s development crises. One points to the creation of
faulty incentives under statist strategies, while the other
focuses on an uncaptured peasantry. Both explanations are
undermined by their complete disregard of gender labor
relations. The paper concludes with a discussion of policy
implications of a gendered approach to agriculture. Maize is
mentioned solely as an example of an innovation that was
accepted by African women farmers because they expected
to be personally rewarded.
Suda, C.A. 1996. Household Labor Use and Changes in
Gender Roles on Small Farms in Ndhiwa Division,
Western Kenya: The Challenge of Comparing the
Contributions of Different Workers. Monograph #1.
Nairobi, Kenya: Institute of African Studies.
This empirical micro-level study investigates and analyses
patterns of labor contributions by male and female farmers
engaged in small-scale farm production in Ndhiwa
Division, Western Kenya. The primary data were collected
by survey and show what percentage of men, women,
children, and hired labor perform tasks frequently,
occasionally, or never. The data do not show how
intensively, either in effort or duration, these tasks are
performed by different groups. Agricultural production in
the study region relies upon unpaid family labor. Most of
the labor for food production and household nurturing is
provided by women. Men are more often involved in
animal husbandry, although increased migration has led
women to adopt tasks such as milking and herding. The
division of labor by gender is changing, but in such a way
that women are performing a disproportionately large
amount of tasks. While off-farm enterprises are often
unproductive or unavailable, men are much less likely to
engage in tasks traditionally allocated to women than
women are to adopt traditionally male tasks.
Improvements in infrastructure, policies to relieve women
of time constraints, and education to correct “outdated”
patriarchal assumptions would benefit both women and
the rural community at large. In addition, early maturing
maize varieties would help the region by changing seasonal
labor demands.
Tripp, R. 1993. Invisible hands, indigenous knowledge
and inevitable fads: Challenges to public sector
agricultural research in Ghana. World Development
21(12): 2003-16.
Support for public sector agricultural research is declining.
Although private and NGO involvement in maize research
is important in Ghana, there continues to be a need for
public sector involvement in research and in the maize
sector generally in Ghana.
Tschirley, D.L., and A.P. Santos. 1995. Who Eats Yellow
Maize? Preliminary Results of a Survey of Consumer
Maize Preferences in Maputo, Mozambique. East
Lansing, Michigan: Department of Agricultural
Economics, Michigan State University.
This study is based on preliminary results from research
on consumer maize preferences in low-income barrios of
Maputo, Mozambique. Historically, white maize has been
used for human consumption while yellow maize has been
restricted to animal feed. The world market for white
maize is smaller, higher priced, and more volatile than the
yellow maize market. Recently, food-aid shipments have
made yellow maize available in Mozambique at relatively
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