Effect of women access to land on household nutritional outcomes among small scale farmers in Machakos County, Kenya

Abstract

Agriculture plays a vital role in the Kenyan economy. It helps in poverty mitigation and ensuring food security. In agriculture, women constitute the majority of small-scale farmers in Kenya, providing 89% of subsistence farming labor force and 70% of the cash crop labor force. However, they have limited access to land which hinders them from making the most constructive use of their time and energy in the agricultural sector and thus affecting household nutritional outcomes. Therefore, this study sought to determine the factors influencing women access to land and the effects of women access to land on household nutritional outcomes among small-scale women farmers. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 384 small-scale women farmers from Machakos County who were interviewed using a pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire. The household nutritional outcomes were measured using Households Dietary Diversity scores (HDDS) and Household Hunger Scale Scores (HHS). Data was analyzed using Chi-square test, double hurdle and Heterogeneous Treatment Effects (HTE) models. The results indicated that there existed a significant relationship between women access to land and the choice of farm enterprises since the chi-value of 374.84 was statistically significant at 1%. A higher percentage of women (46.2%) who had access to land were involved in food crop and livestock farming whereas 66.8% of those who did not have access to land were predominantly involved in livestock farming. Women access to land was positively influenced by household size, the value of productive assets, credit borrowed, extension contacts, social influence and the main source of agricultural information. However, it was negatively influenced by marital status, spousal age gap and distance to the market. The results also revealed that all households benefitted positively but differently from women’s access to land in terms of nutrition outcomes. The maximum number of food groups consumed by households in which women had access to land were 12 food groups whereas for their counterparts it was 7 food groups. The highly consumed food groups were cereals (98.7%), vegetables (86.5%), oil/fats (91.7%), sugar/honey (98.4%) and miscellaneous/condiments (98.4%). Therefore, the study concluded that; women access and the extent of access to land is influenced by both women socio-economic and institutional factors. Most importantly, it was evident that women access to land had a great potential to improve household nutritional outcomes. Thus, the study recommended that in order to improve women access to land, women need to be motivated to join and participate in farmers’ groups through which they could gain access to extension information and credit. In addition, women farmers should be sensitized on the need to invest in farm productive assets in order to enhance their bargaining power in the household and absorb risks associated with farming.