Factors motivating women’s participation in contract sugarcane farming in Mumias Sub-County, Kakamega County, Kenya

Abstract

The sugar sector generates an estimated 12 billion shillings annually, supporting livelihoods of about six million people in Kenya. Women bear the greatest responsibility of managing contracted sugarcane while men benefit from the profits as farming contracts are owned by the latter. Aspects of critical evaluation of patriarchal structures, equitable sharing of sugarcane profits and compensation for labour provided on the farms have not been documented and these comprised the focus of this study. The purpose of the study was to examine factors motivating women‘s participation in contract sugarcane farming in Mumias sub-county, Kakamega County. The Research design used was cross sectional survey. The target population consisted of 57,568 women in the contracted households, who were the main labour providers within the County. Accessible population comprised of 3,305 spread within Ekero and Lureko sub locations which form Mumias sub-county. Systematic sampling technique was used to select a sample size of 118 respondents. Two focus group discussions were conducted in both Ekero and Lureko sub-locations. In each sub-location, the focus group comprised eight women, who included four contracted women farmers and four non-contracted women who provided labour on the household farms, adding up to 16 in the two sub locations. Data was collected using questionnaires administered to all the 118 selected respondents. Focus group discussion guides were used to collect thematic data narratives from the Focus Groups. The validity and reliability of the instruments was ascertained using content validity and Cronbach‘s alpha coefficient respectively. Pre-test results in the latter yielded 0.709. Data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics aided by Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 17.0. The inferential statistics used were linear multiple and simple regression to establish the influence tested at 0.05 level of significance. The findings established that patriarchy had a higher influence, showing a variability of 67.1% on women‘s participation than sharing of sugarcane proceeds which had 59.7% and labour compensation, 39%. The study indicated that all the three factors significantly (0.000) determined the way women participated in contract farming in households. The study recommended establishment of sound government and company policies and encouraged viable household strategies that would harness and direct the energies of these women in the study area towards contract farming, while achieving a win-win situation in the household. Such strategies include contracting actual workers on the farms to allow them participate in decision making and share in farming profits.