Abstract:
The agriculture sector supports the livelihoods of the majority of the population in Rwanda.
Currently, the sector is dominated by smallholder farmers most of whom are women. In order to modernize and transform agriculture to market orientation, the government has put in place agriculture sector development programs for instance the Crop Intensification Program. One of the targeted crops in the program is the common bean. Nearly all households in Rwanda produce the common bean. Though there are potential welfare gains from participating in common bean output markets, the level of market participation in common bean market is still low. There are gender disparities in the ownership and control of productive assets in Rwanda. This study therefore was a gendered assessment of determinants of market participation among smallholder common bean farmers in Rwanda. The specific objectives of the study were: to characterize the socio economic attributes of the smallholder common bean farmers by gender, to assess the determinants of market participation and extent of market participation in common bean markets among the smallholder common bean farmers by gender and to determine the factors influencing choice of common bean marketing outlets in Rwanda. Multistage sampling procedure was used to select 385 respondents. Data was analysed using Excel, STATA and SPSS computer programs. Descriptive statistics, Heckman two step model and Multinomial logistic model were used to analyse the said objectives. The results revealed disparities in market participation and extent/level with female headed households lagging behind. The age, labour used in selling and group membership significantly influenced male headed households’ market participation. Education, bean type and land under beans were important in influencing female headed households’ bean market participation. Age, marital status and land size significantly influenced extent of bean market participation among the male headed households. Age, land under beans, credit access, group
membership and distance to the market influenced the extent of market participation among the female headed households. Household size, labour used in selling, education level, group membership, credit access and road type were important in explaining the choice of common bean market outlets. The findings showed disparities in market participation across male headed and female headed households. In order to improve common bean market participation especially among women, efforts to streamline land entitlement, price marketing and education policies should be made in a gender considerate manner. There should also be promotion of farmer cooperation, provision of agricultural credit and improvement of rural roads
