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Gender and Agroforestry in Africa: Who Benefits? The African Perspective

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Agroforestry - The Future of Global Land Use

Part of the book series: Advances in Agroforestry ((ADAG,volume 9))

Abstract

This chapter examines women’s participation in agroforestry relative to men and the challenges and successes they experience. Women’s participation is hampered by socioeconomic, cultural, and policy issues that vary within and across locations. The degree of women’s involvement relative to men in practices such as soil fertility management and fodder production is fairly high in terms of proportion of female-headed households participating but is low as measured by the area they allocate to these activities and the number of trees they plant. The lesser involvement reflects women’s lack of resources, particularly labor, their heavy workload, and perhaps their greater aversion to risk. Women dominate the production and processing of indigenous fruits; however, they are confined to the lower end of the value chain (retailing), which limits their control over and returns from the production process. The recommendations arising from the review include (1) facilitating women to form and strengthen associations, (2) targeting women’s associations, (3) helping women to improve productivity and marketing of products considered to be in women’s domain, and (4) improving women’s access to information.

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Acknowledgments

Special thanks go to Agnes Quisumbing and Diane Russell who provided us with valuable comments. We also thank Meine van Noordwijk and Ramni Jamnadass for their valuable inputs. The two anonymous reviewers are also acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tree Product Marketing and Extension, Kenya Forestry Research Institute, 20412-00200, Nairobi, Kenya

    Evelyne Kiptot

  2. Tree Product Marketing and Extension, World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), 30677-00100, Nairobi, Kenya

    Steven Franzel

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  1. Evelyne Kiptot
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Correspondence to Steven Franzel .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Sch. of Forest Resources and Conservatio, University of Florida, 118 Newins-Zielgler Hall, Box 110410, Gainesville, 32611, Florida, USA

    P.K. Ramachandran Nair

  2. ICRAF (World Agroforestry Centre), P.O. Box 30677, Nairobi, 00100, Kenya

    Dennis Garrity

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Kiptot, E., Franzel, S. (2012). Gender and Agroforestry in Africa: Who Benefits? The African Perspective. In: Nair, P., Garrity, D. (eds) Agroforestry - The Future of Global Land Use. Advances in Agroforestry, vol 9. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4676-3_23

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