Gender preferences, soil and water conservation and household income ;case of smallholder farmers in Northern Rwanda

Abstract

Under the National strategy for transformation, Rwanda has aimed to modernise and increase agricultural productivity, and promote sustainable management of natural resources towards a green economy, while mainstreaming gender across strategies and investments to achieve gender equality and ensure equal opportunities for men and women. This has resulted in increase of female share in agriculture production and natural resources management as laborers and decision-makers. Despite the country‘s performance in gender development index (0.941), the worry is if rural women farmers have adequate opportunities to participate in production and decision-making processes as men do; and particularly, what would be the factors influencing alternative investment in soil and water conservation (SWC). Furthermore, the nature, trends and patterns of this feminisation of agriculture and the impact of women‘s empowerment on SWC are still uncertain. This could be attributed to the lack of data on gender preferences for multiple SWC attributes, and the absence of reliable information on their trade-offs, as well as unreliable evidence on the effect of SWC investments on household income. To fill this gap, this study seeks to contribute to sustainable natural resources management and household welfare through assessing gender preferences in SWC in Northern Rwanda. This study used a mixed-method approach involving focus group discussions, key informants and participatory mapping; and surveys to collect data from a sample of 653 respondents including 253 males and 400 females. Data were analyses using thematic content analysis, GIS mapping, count scores and pearson correlation, and econometric models such as multinomial logit, iterative seemingly unrelated regression equations and instrumental variable quantile regression. Results on land uses show that overtime change in cropland (increased to 48% and then 34%) has led farmers to explore new off-farm opportunities. Most adopted SWC practices at homestead were organic manure (85%), ridge farming (65%) and NPK (52%). Results show preferences heterogeneity in SWC, and significant trade-offs and gender differences in preferences for SWC scenarios. Furthermore, results show that women‘s empowerment has mixed effects on SWC strategies. Lastly, financing investment in SWC significantly increases income five times for middle-income earners compared to the poor. Policy makers should design appropriate farm conservation and livelihood strategies to help the poor finance investment in SWC. For example, introducing village financial and social protection schemes in SWC, and labor saving technologies can enhance empowerment through increase women‘s shares and decisions. Given the cross section nature of our data, further studies should focus on longitudinal or panel data for simulation analysis of SWC.