Socio-Cultural Factors Affecting Women Participation in Beekeeping in Baringo South Sub- County, Baringo County, Kenya.

Abstract

Beekeeping is a socio-economic activity practiced by both women and men all around the world. It entails the rearing and management of bees for commercial production of honey and other beehive products. In Kenya, beekeeping is mostly a male’s dominated venture but with advocacy programme smallholder women have ventured the field. Despite the efforts of county government and nongovernmental organizations encouraging women participation in beekeeping there is low uptake of this venture, thus the gap between the norm and the practice. This study therefore investigated the socio-cultural factors affecting women participation in beekeeping in Baringo South Sub-county. The study sought to investigate how training, cultural stereotypes, cultural norms and stereotypes, land tenure systems and women’s productive roles affects women participation in beekeeping. Survey research design was used. The study population was 700 women who practiced beekeeping in the areas. From the study population, a study sample size of 128 women participants was selected using simple random sampling procedure. Data was collected using questionnaires for the respondents and interview schedules for the key informants who included the chairs of the women groups and the branch manager of an NGO. The instrument was piloted in Baringo North Sub-county. A coefficient of 0.83 was obtained indicating the instruments were reliable as it was above the required threshold of 0.7. Data was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The study results indicate that coefficients for tertiary (college) (-2.645) and university level of education (-2.794) were negative and significant at 5% level. This implies that possession of more formal education is attributed to nonparticipation in bee keeping. Majority of the respondents (82.8%) indicated that they had cultural beliefs and stereotypes that hindered them from practicing bee keeping. Most of the stereotypes revolved around beliefs that beekeeping is purely a male’s role, no woman should own beehives because she will die. The coefficient for individual land ownership (1.207) was positive and statistically significant at 5% level (p-value = 0.020). This implies that owning land on individual basis leads to greater women participation in beekeeping. The coefficient for gender roles (-0.592) was negative and statistically significant at 5% level (p-value = 0.020). This implies that greater load with gender roles reduces women participation in beekeeping. The study therefore recommends more awareness and campaigns to be done on the importance of including women in beekeeping. Policies on land ownership needs to be implemented in the area to enable more women own land. This will enhance women participation in beekeeping in order to create employment and income