TY - JOUR
T1 - Gender differences in the adoption of agricultural technology
T2 - The case of improved maize varieties in southern Ethiopia
AU - Gebre, Girma Gezimu
AU - Isoda, Hiroshi
AU - Rahut, Dil Bahadur
AU - Amekawa, Yuichiro
AU - Nomura, Hisako
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) for funding our study through the Stress Tolerant Maize for Africa (STMA) project funded by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. We are also grateful to the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments to improve the paper.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 The Authors
PY - 2019/9/1
Y1 - 2019/9/1
N2 - This study explores the role of gender-based decision-making in the adoption of improved maize varieties. The primary data were collected in 2018 from 560 farm households in Dawuro Zone, Ethiopia, and were comparatively analyzed across gender categories of households: male decision-making, female decision-making and joint decision-making, using a double-hurdle model. The results show that the intensity of improved maize varieties adopted on plots managed by male, female, and joint decision-making households are significantly different. This effect diminishes in the model when we take other factors into account. Using the gender of the heads of households and agricultural decision-maker, the current study did not find significant evidence of gender difference in the rate and intensity of adoption of improved maize varieties. The intensity of adoption of improved maize varieties is lower for female-headed households where decisions are made jointly by men and women, compared to the male-headed households where decisions are made jointly. As the economic status is a key driver of adoption of improved maize varieties, it is recommended that the policies and programs that aim at developing and disseminating quality maize seeds in southern Ethiopia should emphatically support economically less endowed but more gender egalitarian joint decision-making households, especially female-headed ones.
AB - This study explores the role of gender-based decision-making in the adoption of improved maize varieties. The primary data were collected in 2018 from 560 farm households in Dawuro Zone, Ethiopia, and were comparatively analyzed across gender categories of households: male decision-making, female decision-making and joint decision-making, using a double-hurdle model. The results show that the intensity of improved maize varieties adopted on plots managed by male, female, and joint decision-making households are significantly different. This effect diminishes in the model when we take other factors into account. Using the gender of the heads of households and agricultural decision-maker, the current study did not find significant evidence of gender difference in the rate and intensity of adoption of improved maize varieties. The intensity of adoption of improved maize varieties is lower for female-headed households where decisions are made jointly by men and women, compared to the male-headed households where decisions are made jointly. As the economic status is a key driver of adoption of improved maize varieties, it is recommended that the policies and programs that aim at developing and disseminating quality maize seeds in southern Ethiopia should emphatically support economically less endowed but more gender egalitarian joint decision-making households, especially female-headed ones.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.wsif.2019.102264
DO - 10.1016/j.wsif.2019.102264
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85070905304
VL - 76
JO - Women's Studies International Forum
JF - Women's Studies International Forum
SN - 0277-5395
M1 - 102264
ER -