The role of gender in household decision making on tree planting: A case study from Malawi

Seline Meijer

University College Dublin (UCD)

World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF)

Supervisors: Maarten Nieuwenhuis (UCD),Delia Catacutan & Sileshi Weldesemayat (ICRAF)

ATBC Meeting Bonito, World Congress on Agroforestry, New Delhi, India

11 February 2014

• 19 June 2012

Background

Increasingly, the traditional assumption that the senior male of the household functions as the household head and primary decision maker is being questioned.

When it comes to agroforestry, the role of the head of the household in decision making at household level has not been documented well.

Aims of the study

i. To identify which household members are the main decision maker(s) for various agricultural activities including tree planting;

ii. To evaluate the outcomes of household decision making in terms of actual trees planted by farming households in two rural districts in Malawi.

Malawi

High levels of poverty

About 75 % of the population are subsistence farmers

Small farm size (< 1ha)

Most important food crop is maize

Low education levels

Malawi and kinship

Patrilineal social organisation: Households reside in the village of the husband after marriage (virilocalresidence) and the husband holds the land rights.

Matrilineal social organisation: Households reside in the village of the wife after marriage (uxorilocalresidence) and the wife holds the land rights.

Study area

Two study sites:

Mzimba (northern Malawi)Low population densities High forest coverMostly patrilineal kinship

Chiradzulu (southern Malawi)High population densities Low forest coverMostly matrilineal kinship

Methods

Household survey of 135 married household heads

Mzimba:

65 male household heads

2 female household heads

Chiradzulu:

41 male household heads

27 female household heads

Methods

Focus Group Discussions (FGDs): 8 per district

Results – part 1

Who makes the decisionson agricultural activities;in particular on tree planting and tree management?

Results – part 1: surveyActivities Head (%) Spouse (%) Joint (%) N

Crops to plant 50 10 40 134

Sowing 50 7 43 135

Weeding 47 8 45 135

Fertilizer 39 14 47 134

Trees to plant 67 7 26 134

Tree management 63 8 29 133

Animals to rear 52 12 36 135

Selling farm products 40 17 43 135

Credit 45 19 36 135

Participation in meetings 54 1 45 135

Firewood collection 27 62 11 135

Results – part 1

Gender:

Male-headed households: decision making on tree planting was done more often by the household head alone

Female-headed households: more joint decision making by the husband and wife together.

Results – part 1

Kinship:

Patrilineal households: decisions on tree planting and tree management were made more often by the household head alone.

Matrilineal households: joint decision making was more common

Results – part 1: FGDsActivities Husband Wife Joint Other N

Crops to plant 5 3 8 0 16

Sowing 6 2 8 0 16

Weeding 4 2 9 1 16

Fertilizer 2 2 11 1 16

Trees to plant 12 1 3 0 16

Tree management 14 2 0 0 16

Animals to rear 4 1 10 1 16

Selling farm products 4 2 10 0 16

Credit 5 7 4 0 16

Participation in meetings 4 6 6 0 16

Firewood collection 0 16 0 0 16

Results – part 2

How does decision making by the household head, the spouse or joint decision making affect the number of trees planted?

Results – part 2

Negative binomial regression model to explore the relationship of gender, kinship, decision making on tree planting and tree management with the density of trees planted

In the best fit model, the density of planted trees was associated with kinship (P < 0.001) and the decision maker on tree management (P = 0.040).

Gender of the household head was not significant.

Results – part 2

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

Head Spouse Joint

Matrilineal

Patrilineal

Conclusions

The findings of this study demonstrate that the assumption that the household head is the primary decision maker is an oversimplification of reality.

No clear pattern of household decision making emerged from our data, which indicates that decision making is a complex process and cannot be reduced to a simple model.

Conclusions

Gender of the household head affected who was the main decision maker within the household, and this in turn affected the density of trees planted.

Tree planting and management seem to be considered as mainly the responsibility of men in our study areas; however, joint decision makers were more successful in terms of the numbers of trees planted on their land.

Implications

Research and extension efforts should not merely target the household head but take into consideration that decision making in relation to farming and tree planting is multidimensional and site-specific.

Assumptions on headship and gender roles need to be locally checked and validated, for agroforestry research, policies and projects to be relevant and effective.

Acknowledgements

Conference organisers

My supervisors

Maarten Nieuwenhuis (UCD)

Delia Catacutan (ICRAF)

Sileshi Weldesemayat (ICRAF)

My colleagues at ICRAF

Irish Aid for funding my research

& the farmers in Malawi

Thank you!

Contact: s.meijer@cgiar.org