Discussion Paper No. 267 of 2021 on Gender, Access to Agricultural Resources and Food Security in Kenya

Abstract

Food insecurity is a major development challenge in developing countries. In Kenya, the food poverty incidence remains high, as about 1 in every 3 individuals does not meet the minimum daily calorific requirement. Research points to possible gender-linked pathways through which agriculture influences food security in households. Gender considerations are especially important in the African context where there are broad divisions in the responsibilities between men and women and how they use their personal income in line with traditional cultures. To evaluate this pathway in the Kenyan context, we explore how women’s empowerment in agriculture compares to that of men, and its effects on household’s food security outcomes, measured using household’s food consumption scores. We find that approximately 28 per cent of households in Kenya are food insecure. We further show that women in agriculture are more disempowered relative to men. Women are mainly disempowered in: access to and decisions on agricultural credit, agricultural group membership, and asset ownership. Men are mainly disempowered in access to and decisions on agricultural credit and agricultural group membership. We find that women’s empowerment has a positive and significant effect on households’ food consumption scores, whereas the male’s empowerment effect is weaker and much lower. The dimensions of women’s empowerment that matter most in increasing household’s food consumption cost are input in productive decisions, control over use of income, and group membership. With men, the dimension that matters most in increasing household’s food consumption cost is access to and decisions on credit. The study results suggest that household food and nutrition security could be enhanced to a greater degree through interventions that promote women’s empowerment in agriculture.