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Women play critical roles in agricultural value chains in developing countries. However,
their participation in value chain development activities does not always result into their
empowerment. Tire main objective of this study was to examine the impacts of women
their empowerment.
The study was conducted in Sirnanjiro District and adopted a cross-sectional research
design. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected using focus group discussions, key
informant interviews and household surveys whereby 402 women of whom 207 (51.2%)
non-participants. Moreover, eight focus group discussions were conducted. Qualitative
data were analyzed using ethnographic content analysis technique with constant
comparison; quantitative data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social
Sciences. Descriptive statistics were computed to establish the profiles of research
participants; gross margin were calculated to establish profit margins of different chain
actors; Cumulative Empowerment Index was constructed to gauge the overall women
empowerment. Principle Component Analysis was used to compute wealth quintiles as
proxy for household socio-economic status. F-test was used to compare the levels of
empowerment by socio-economic status. Ordinal logistic regression model was used to
establish the determinants of women empowerment in onion value chain. Changes in
found. Women’s perception on their
empowerment was linked to different achievements in their lives in their social and
(CEI = 0.6033) Women participation in decision making was higher and fanner groups
w'ere an important source of knowledge for change. The relationship between socio
0 05).economic status and women empowerment was statistically significant (P
gender roles, especially in production, were
participation in onion value chain development activities on
economic contexts and was categorized into medium level of empowerment
iii
Ordinal logistic regression analysis revealed the predictors of women empowerment in the
chain to be: marital status, education level, age at first marriage, land ownership, access to
credit and participation in onion value chain (P < 0.05). It is recommended to the
government and non-governmental organisations to promote men’s involvement in
farmer’s organisations to competitively participate and get benefits from onion value |
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