The following conclusions have been reached both from the survey and in-depth interviews. Women in this study are represented as landless. On the grounds of customary rights, most women still believe that they own land and wish to maintain their independence in managing the land on their own. Unfortunately,the women have not realized that their rights are legally and formally non-existent as the lands are registered in the names of the husbands.
It is notable that most women are excluded almost enmarse from cooperative societies. This is because membership requires evidence for resources which in this particular area is land. Few women, if any, hold titles of land. The women's low educational attainment has not exposed them enough to learn the benefits of membership in the cooperatives.
In general, the women do not seem to have much communication with, nor assistance from agricultural extension officers. The agricultural information much needed by a farmer seems to come from neighbours, relatives and the church.
The women also exercise decision making authority on the work on the farm. The men seem to come in only when inputs costing money have to be purchased. There is also independence on the part of the woman on the money which comes from the sale of her produce or crafts. The money goes towards buying food, clothing and household needs. In deed, it is their responsibility to take care of their own families so they have to decide how to use the little income they get and see how it fits into the running of the family.
We also conclude that women do most of the work in food production as there is a great indication that most men are employed on salaried jobs. The household activities are left to the women alone with little help from their female children. To be able to run the families, the women have to engage in one or other income generating activity as they cannot maintain their families on the farm produce along. Our findings pint to labour shortage. The women cannot cope with all the work left to them. What effect does this have on their role in food production? Most land is left uncultivated as they cannot manage by themselves. Sometimes farm-work has to be left in order to perform other tasks which might need immediate attention. According to Kariuki:
The expressed feeling is that "women must work hard -harder than the men" for families to survive. The women seem to take the whole responsibility of the family subsistence. The main obstacle to the women's performance of their double tasks is
the lack of help. The image of the husband does not appear particularly helpful (Kariuki 1984:25).
The majority of the women interviewed expressed the need for help. According to them their workload has been caused not much by male migration or children going to school, but by lack of money to hire more labourers. How far can the women's labour be stretched? The general expression is that, "We are very tired. There is too much work". Time to rest, "I rest on Sundays when I do my housework, or at lunch time when I am eating, or at night when sleeping, or when cooking". The women perceive that they bear all the burdens of their families, but that the families are also aware of it as most of them openly appreciate. The women themselves are aware of their worth too. Their self perception is very good because "things are as they are because of the work I do - otherwise things would be in chaos". However, they seem to say, this is not enough as they also need enough benefits just as the men to perform their roles more efficiently and effectively otherwise they face a situation which is restraining and a hindrance to their otherwise important tasks.
In Mumbuni Location as in many parts of rural Kenya, women were seen and found to provide over 80 per cent of labour in food production. Factors favouring food production and the constraints that face women as food producers have been assessed and analyzed and we have arrived at the following conclusion.
First, it is true that land reform has not promoted women's legal ownership and inheritance rights and at the same time undermined women's traditional use rights under customary land tenure system by registering land in the name of husband or son. This is a serious constraint on women's productivity in food as land reform is meant to modernize agriculture and improve quality of access to resources yet despite the fact that women provide over 80% of agricultural labour force in Kenya, they have not benefited from these changes.
Second, the majority of the women were found to have no access to credit and finance. The cooperatives which provides the most credit and loan facilities in the area, usually requires a display of security such as land. The women were therefore found to be disadvantaged because they do not own any land. Access to credit is crucial for increasing productivity, by enabling one to afford inputs, seeds, fertilizers and farm implements without which the women cannot improve their food production.
Third, the women were found to face discrimination in access to extension services. Most of the extension officers seen in the area were men who seem to prefer to visit the men cash crop farmers rather than women food farmers. For the production of food to improve, it is only through the training of the women or through extension officers that new agricultural technological adoption can reach the rural women.
Fourth, the participation and decision making in the cooperatives by women was found to be very poor. The cooperatives surveyed within the study area rarely had women registered members. The few women found to be members of the cooperatives were not in positions to effect decisions. We found this to undermine the authority of the women in their traditional decision making powers concerning food production, processing, storage, marketing, preparing and budgeting. The women have therefore been deprived of their food production experience and knowledge by the cooperatives.
Fifth, the male migration in search of salaried jobs was found to lead to a further constraint to women's role in food production. A number of women left behind by the husbands to produce food at home had no access to credit, no control over household income and had no powers of decision making on the farm. The migrant husband has to be contacted before any vital decision or move is taken by the women. This delays a lot of farm activities and can be very frustrating to the farmer.
Sixth, labour was found to be a great constraint to the women in their food production. The share of labour in food production is particularly important in view of the fact that in many cases the women performed their agricultural work with a range of other household tasks, and other income generating activities. It is therefore worth noting that food production will be influenced by the relative labour demand it requires. Lack of labour saving implements in food production will discourage women from their farm-work.
Seventh, women like men need cash to purchase food and other basic needs. Since food crops are generally consumed at home, the women have come up with a strategy of getting cash income by engaging in other income generating activities. It was observed that the need for cash seemed to lead to a trade off of decision between food and non food production for sale. Improving agricultural food prices and their marketing will definitely improve their production.
Last, the failure to recognize the economic contribution to food production and household work by the society and whether the women should control the proceeds or rewards from their efforts was found to be a constraint in their role as food producers. This in effect has led to a failure in considerations of factors affecting women's contribution, how they are prepared for the tasks they perform, tools and techniques they use and the efficiency of their effort. The incentives that the women may need in food production may be very important.
It is indeed true as already suggested in this study that development efforts with respect to food production cannot be successful if the role of women is not taken seriously. In this respect the women should be the target group in all development programmes, including credit, training, crop improvement and marketing.
According to Pala "improving women's agricultural productivity depends on improving their access to resources such as land which is a key factor of production. Without specific land rights their role in production will be further marginalised" (Pala 1983). It will be important to review the women's land rights, and establish a policy that recognises women's user rights to land. The ILO report says that:
At the minimum these rights should be guaranteed and protected by law, and ownership rights established where appropriate (ILO 1986: 180).
Such a measure could be an incentive for better production.
For extension services, it will be important to identify women's groups upon which they depend quite a lot. These groups can be introduced to programmes that will suite their interest and needs in the productive roles, by facilitating the participation of the disadvantaged women in new methods of farming and organizing them to acquire skills and make use of government programmes and services. The extension workers should be women or men specifically trained to meet the needs of women farmers.
The Government should acknowledge the nature and time profile of rural women's work while developing strategies for raising productivity. The women's workload can only be reduced by introducing simple and inexpensive equipment to facilitate both domestic and farm tasks (Pala 1983). However, the women have to be involved in the design and testing of such technologies and be trained in their use, maintenance and repair.
Further research should be done on data base to determine the number of women participating in food production in different parts of Africa. Special attention should be given to the following topics: the relative priority given to cash and food crops on land allocation, the women's economic contribution, social and family consequences, both positive and negative that can be attributed to her roles, the consequences of seasonality on women's labour; labour input discrimination for cash and food crops; intra household distribution of income, consumption, assets and decision making; and time budget survey of agricultural households. These topics will broadly deal with the socio-economic issues that effect food production.
