Income Diversification Among Farming Households Headed by Women in Rural Kenya

Figures & data

Table 1 Household characteristics and structure of income, female-headed households

	Mono. married	Poly. married	Divorced	Widowed	Never married	No male	All
Observations	625	241	132	989	81	716	2784
Distribution (%)	22.4	8.7	4.7	35.5	2.9	25.7	100.0
Age^a	38.34	46.38	44.30	54.58	39.33	43.02	47.43
	(0.56)	(1.17)	(1.24)	(0.55)	(1.37)	(0.67)	(0.41)
Years of education^a	6.35	3.36	3.92	2.88	6.96	4.76	4.24
	(0.20)	(0.32)	(0.42)	(0.16)	(0.53)	(0.20)	(0.12)
Household size	5.06	5.48	4.44	4.98	3.97	4.00	4.99
	(0.09)	(0.19)	(0.32)	(0.09)	(0.22)	(0.09)	(0.06)
Male labor	0.82	0.99	0.63	1.05	0.57	0.00	0.92
	(0.05)	(0.08)	(0.09)	(0.04)	(0.11)	(0.00)	(0.03)
Female labor	1.55	1.65	1.75	1.51	1.50	1.44	1.55
	(0.04)	(0.07)	(0.13)	(0.04)	(0.11)	(0.03)	(0.03)
Land/labor ratio	1.59	1.91	1.27	1.55	0.99	2.32	1.56
	(0.37)	(0.76)	(0.61)	(0.32)	(0.23)	(0.58)	(0.21)
Credit constraint	0.35	0.48	0.50	0.45	0.41	0.40	0.42
	(0.02)	(0.04)	(0.05)	(0.02)	(0.06)	(0.02)	(0.01)
Expenditures per capita	26,090	18,617	21,776	22,017	31,989	23,893	23,307
	(1523)	(972)	(1542)	(653)	(3847)	(1072)	(665)
Farm income	46.39	54.92	47.31	47.52	36.76	46.28	47.51
	(2.15)	(3.36)	(6.15)	(1.87)	(7.48)	(2.19)	(1.40)
Agricultural wage income	4.93	4.07	16.71	5.31	18.01	6.24	6.29
	(0.84)	(1.23)	(6.43)	(0.68)	(4.98)	(1.34)	(0.68)
Total agricultural income	51.32	58.99	64.02	52.84	54.77	52.52	53.80
	(2.18)	(3.32)	(5.43)	(1.80)	(7.57)	(2.17)	(1.36)
Nonagricultural wage income	8.11	6.16	12.80	9.39	7.71	5.14	8.79
	(1.04)	(1.43)	(3.19)	(1.01)	(2.85)	(0.90)	(0.66)
Non-farm self-employment income	4.96	6.00	6.56	7.48	12.48	7.18	6.70
	(0.97)	(1.68)	(2.26)	(1.02)	(3.85)	(1.89)	(0.67)
Total wage and self-employment	13.08	12.16	19.36	16.87	20.20	12.32	15.49
	(1.39)	(2.17)	(3.79)	(1.36)	(4.43)	(1.54)	(0.92)
Transfers	31.72	26.38	16.32	27.48	20.72	32.22	27.70
	(1.92)	(2.79)	(3.61)	(1.48)	(4.73)	(1.90)	(1.16)
Other income	3.88	2.47	0.29	2.81	4.31	2.94	3.01
	(0.57)	(0.82)	(0.15)	(0.54)	(3.94)	(0.68)	(0.38)
Total nonagricultural income	48.68	41.01	35.97	47.16	45.23	47.48	46.20
	(2.18)	(3.32)	(5.43)	(1.79)	(7.57)	(2.17)	(1.37)

Notes: ^arefers to the female household head. Weighted sample data. Mean and standard error. The distribution of income by source is presented as mean of shares.

Table 2 Household characteristics and structure of income, male-headed households

	Mono. married	Poly. married	Divorced	Widowed	Never married	All
Observations	3895	751	75	95	85	4901
Distribution (%)	79.5	15.3	1.5	1.9	1.7	100.0
Age^a	44.79	53.72	42.97	60.20	28.08	45.86
	(0.28)	(0.65)	(1.04)	(1.48)	(1.18)	(0.27)
Years of education^a	6.93	4.32	5.77	3.92	7.08	6.53
	(0.09)	(0.21)	(0.66)	(0.61)	(0.44)	(0.08)
Household size	5.79	6.79	2.65	4.14	1.73	5.76
	(0.06)	(0.15)	(0.32)	(0.26)	(0.19)	(0.05)
Male labor	1.49	1.54	1.32	1.34	1.28	1.49
	(0.02)	(0.05)	(0.08)	(0.13)	(0.08)	(0.02)
Female labor	1.45	1.67	0.26	0.81	0.18	1.42
	(0.02)	(0.05)	(0.07)	(0.10)	(0.05)	(0.02)
Land/labor ratio	0.92	1.18	1.17	1.33	1.05	0.97
	(0.04)	(0.17)	(0.18)	(0.19)	(0.27)	(0.05)
Credit constraint	0.40	0.40	0.54	0.48	0.36	0.41
	(0.01)	(0.01)	(0.07)	(0.06)	(0.05)	(0.01)
Expenditures per capita	24,057	18,090	35,474	28,356	48,804	24,038
	(606)	(636)	(3255)	(3014)	(5168)	(552)
Income structure (% of total income)
Farm income	50.77	55.21	42.06	58.66	40.57	51.14
	(1.11)	(1.97)	(6.46)	(5.13)	(5.90)	(1.00)
Agricultural wage income	6.56	3.23	13.31	3.69	17.91	6.41
	(0.54)	(0.69)	(5.12)	(1.47)	(5.92)	(0.49)
Total agricultural income	57.33	58.44	55.37	62.35	58.48	57.55
	(1.03)	(1.91)	(5.46)	(5.00)	(5.47)	(0.92)
Nonagricultural wage income	16.19	12.50	15.29	11.06	21.21	15.71
	(0.87)	(1.38)	(4.25)	(3.11)	(4.59)	(0.77)
Self-employment income	10.91	10.14	11.04	9.80	4.13	10.67
	(0.76)	(1.33)	(3.42)	(4.06)	(2.11)	(0.67)
Total wage and self-employment	27.10	22.64	26.33	20.86	25.34	26.37
	(1.08)	(1.69)	(5.09)	(4.83)	(4.85)	(0.94)
Transfers	13.91	16.26	15.63	15.82	13.38	14.26
	(0.63)	(1.23)	(4.27)	(3.04)	(3.30)	(0.57)
Other income	1.66	2.66	2.67	0.97	2.80	1.81
	(0.18)	(0.56)	(1.29)	(0.47)	(1.06)	(0.17)
Total nonagricultural income	42.67	41.56	44.63	37.65	41.52	42.45
	(1.03)	(1.91)	(5.46)	(4.99)	(5.47)	(0.92)

Notes: ^arefers to the male household head. Weighted sample data. Mean and standard error. The distribution of income by source is presented as mean of shares.

Table 3 Level of diversification

Female-headed households	Mono. married	Poly. married	Divorced	Widowed	Never married	No male	All
Number of income sources	2.64	2.42	2.16	2.57	2.23	2.33	2.53
	(0.05)	(0.08)	(0.12)	(0.04)	(0.10)	(0.04)	(0.03)
Number of income sources per adult	1.54	1.25	1.21	1.38	1.37	1.90	1.40
	(0.05)	(0.07)	(0.08)	(0.04)	(0.10)	(0.04)	(0.03)
Herfindal index	0.65	0.67	0.70	0.67	0.65	0.69	0.67
	(0.01)	(0.02)	(0.03)	(0.01)	(0.04)	(0.01)	(0.01)
% from nonagric.	18.7	14.1	24.7	20.8	22.6	15.9	19.7
	(1.99)	(2.53)	(4.95)	(1.61)	(4.63)	(1.98)	(1.20)
Male-headed households
Number of income sources	2.57	2.58	2.31	2.35	2.05		2.55
	(0.02)	(0.05)	(0.12)	(0.09)	(0.13)		(0.02)
Number of income sources per adult	1.05	1.04	1.81	1.49	1.66		1.08
	(0.01)	(0.04)	(0.13)	(0.12)	(0.12)		(0.01)
Herfindal index	0.65	0.64	0.75	0.71	0.75		0.66
	(0.01)	(0.01)	(0.04)	(0.03)	(0.03)		(0.01)
% from nonagric.	30.6	26.8	28.6	22.3	30.0		30.0
	(1.13)	(2.09)	(5.63)	(4.94)	(5.25)		(1.00)

Notes: Weighted data. All calculations are based only on earned income. % from nonagricultural is calculated as the mean of shares.

Table 4 Incident-rate-ratio (Poisson regression on number of income sources)

Constant	2.586***	0.685
	(0.047)	(0.365)
Female head
Monogamously married	1.031	1.094***
	(0.023)	(0.019)
Polygamously married	0.928*	0.984
	(0.037)	(0.031)
Divorced	0.848***	0.956
	(0.033)	(0.029)
Widowed	0.973**	1.019
	(0.015)	(0.016)
Never married	0.828***	0.909***
	(0.029)	(0.026)
Male head
Polygamously married	0.993	1.034*
	(0.028)	(0.021)
Divorced	0.878**	1.052
	(0.046)	(0.084)
Widowed	0.879***	0.918**
	(0.041)	(0.035)
Never married	0.812***	1.031
	(0.048)	(0.059)
Controls	No	Yes
Dispersion	−0.496	−0.605
Log pseudolikelihood	−6052770	−5676048

Notes: *, **, *** denote significance at the 1, 5, and 10 percent levels, respectively. Weighted data, standard errors are in parentheses and clustered at the district level.

Table 5 Participation in income generating activities, average marginal effects (probit regressions)

	Nonagricultural wage	Agricultural wage	Self-employment	Nonagricultural wage	Agricultural wage	Self-employment
Female head
Monogamously married	−0.083***	−0.018	−0.048**	−0.054***	−0.003	−0.061***
	(0.017)	(0.017)	(0.022)	(0.020)	(0.019)	(0.019)
Polygamously married	−0.130***	−0.009	−0.064**	−0.094***	−0.012	−0.075***
	(0.023)	(0.029)	(0.029)	(0.030)	(0.030)	(0.024)
Divorced	−0.066	0.136*	−0.083**	−0.008	0.146**	−0.060
	(0.043)	(0.072)	(0.040)	(0.044)	(0.063)	(0.037)
Widowed	−0.070***	−0.011	−0.031*	−0.017	−0.002	−0.018
	(0.017)	(0.012)	(0.018)	(0.020)	(0.012)	(0.018)
Never married	−0.137**	0.122*	−0.035	−0.115***	0.099*	−0.106**
	(0.043)	(0.059)	(0.054)	(0.039)	(0.056)	(0.047)
Log pseudolikelihood	−2,384,830	−1,643,580	−2,250,793			−2,150,276
Female head
No adult male in household	−0.171***	−0.024	−0.031	−0.122***	−0.015	−0.039*
	(0.015)	(0.018)	(0.020)	(0.016)	(0.021)	(0.020)
With adult male in household	−0.033**	0.016	−0.049***	−0.009	0.025	−0.040***
	(0.006)	(0.014)	(0.015)	(0.016)	(0.014)	(0.014)
Log pseudolikelihood	−2,363,716	−650,631	−251,508	−2,237,509	−573,947	−152,926
Controls	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes

Notes: *, **, *** denote significance at the 1, 5, and 10 percent levels, respectively. Weighted data and standard errors are clustered at the district level. Comparison group: Monogamously married male head.

Table 6 Participation in income-generating activities for female-headed households (average marginal effects, probit regression)

	Nonagricultural wage	Agricultural wage	Self-employment
Polygamously married	−0.060**	0.017	−0.028
	(0.030)	(0.029)	(0.035)
Divorced	0.035	0.143**	−0.013
	(0.043)	(0.063)	(0.047)
Widowed	0.010	−0.002	0.020
	(0.025)	(0.019)	(0.024)
Never married	−0.044	0.099	0.071
	(0.049)	(0.066)	(0.071)
Age of head	0.002*	−0.001	−0.000
	(0.001)	(0.001)	(0.001)
Years of education, head	0.008*	−0.005*	0.004
	(0.004)	(0.003)	(0.003)
Highest education in household	0.006	−0.002	0.005
	(0.004)	(0.003)	(0.003)
Male labor	0.045***	0.026***	−0.004
	(0.011)	(0.010)	(0.008)
Female labor	0.038***	−0.010	0.018*
	(0.011)	(0.010)	(0.010)
Children aged 0–1	0.028	−0.044***	−0.002
	(0.019)	(0.013)	(0.017)
Children aged 2–5	0.008	0.018	0.020
	(0.012)	(0.015)	(0.016)
Children aged 6–10	−0.019*	0.014	0.011
	(0.010)	(0.012)	(0.010)
Children aged 11–14	0.021	−0.010	0.004
	(0.013)	(0.012)	(0.013)
Credit constraints	−0.023	0.005	0.007
	(0.020)	(0.024)	(0.018)
Land per laborer	−0.001	0.000	−0.002
	(0.002)	(0.001)	(0.001)
Land in district	0.003	0.009*	0.007
	(0.006)	(0.005)	(0.005)
Gender norms	0.030**	0.013	−0.002
	(0.014)	(0.014)	(0.010)
Rate of wage labor	0.772***	0.660***	−0.003
	(0.063)	(0.242)	(0.221)
Distance to market	0.000	−0.000	0.002***
	(0.001)	(0.001)	(0.001)
Log mean wage in district	0.029	0.037	0.035
	(0.038)	(0.032)	(0.059)
Log mean expenditures in district	−0.008	0.145***	0.108*
	(0.049)	(0.046)	(0.059)
Province dummies	Yes	Yes	Yes
Log Pseudolikelihood	−567,841	−460,173	−571,698

Notes: *, **, *** denote significance at the 1, 5, and 10 percent levels, respectively. Weighted data and standard errors are clustered at the district level. Comparison group for marital status is monogamously married.

Table 7 Income-diversification strategy (multinomial logit average marginal effects)

	Own farm combined with:
	Own farm only	Agricultural wage	Nonagricultural wage	Self-employment	Two or more other income sources
Female head
Monogamously married	0.130***	−0.012	−0.063***	−0.033*	−0.022*
	(0.025)	(0.013)	(0.016)	(0.017)	(0.012)
Polygamously married	0.173***	0.010	−0.102***	−0.051*	−0.030*
	(0.038)	(0.025)	(0.018)	(0.027)	(0.016)
Divorced	−0.033	0.151**	−0.039	−0.040	−0.039
	(0.058)	(0.064)	(0.037)	(0.035)	(0.027)
Widowed	0.096***	−0.009	−0.057***	−0.015	−0.015
	(0.022)	(0.012)	(0.015)	(0.015)	(0.011)
Never married	0.010	0.116**	−0.069*	−0.020	−0.037
	(0.064)	(0.051)	(0.040)	(0.042)	(0.029)
Female head
No adult male in household	0.161***	0.003	−0.111***	0.011	−0.064***
	(0.023)	(0.016)	(0.012)	(0.017)	0.007
With adult male in household	0.069***	0.009	−0.034***	−0.047***	0.003
	(0.019)	(0.011)	(0.013)	(0.011)	(0.010)

Notes: *, **, *** denote significance at the 1, 5, and 10 percent levels, respectively. Standard errors of the changes in parentheses. Weighted data and standard errors are clustered at the small community level. Comparison group for headship status: monogamously married male head.

Table 8 Income-diversification strategy with explanatory variables (multinomial logit average marginal effects)

	Own farm combined with:
	Own farm only	Agricultural wage	Nonagricultural wage	Self-employment	Two or more other income sources
Polygamously married	0.038	0.048	−0.046*	−0.021	−0.019
	(0.045)	(0.034)	(0.024)	(0.033)	(0.019)
Divorced	−0.190***	0.162***	0.039	0.014	−0.026
	(0.059)	(0.060)	(0.043)	(0.043)	(0.028)
Widowed	−0.045	0.006	0.014	0.033	−0.007
	(0.034)	(0.020)	(0.022)	(0.024)	(0.019)
Never married	−0.128**	0.080	0.000	0.057	−0.008
	(0.064)	(0.052)	(0.046)	(0.060)	(0.038)
Age of head of household	0.000	−0.001*	0.001	0.000	0.001
	(0.001)	(0.001)	(0.001)	(0.001)	(0.001)
Education, head of household	−0.007	−0.003	0.007**	0.003	0.000
	(0.004)	(0.003)	(0.003)	(0.003)	(0.002)
Highest education in Household	−0.005	−0.003	0.003	0.003	0.002
	(0.005)	(0.003)	(0.003)	(0.003)	(0.003)
Male labor	−0.035**	0.01	0.021**	−0.024***	0.029***
	(0.014)	(0.008)	(0.009)	(0.008)	(0.008)
Female labor	−0.028**	−0.014	0.019*	0.003	0.019***
	(0.013)	(0.010)	(0.010)	(0.009)	(0.007)
Children aged 0–1	0.012	−0.034***	0.029	−0.002	−0.005
	(0.024)	(0.011)	(0.018)	(0.016)	(0.012)
Children aged 2–5	−0.031**	0.009	0.000	0.014	0.008
	(0.015)	(0.010)	(0.011)	(0.014)	(0.010)
Children aged 6–10	−0.003	0.012	−0.014	0.004	0.000
	(0.014)	(0.010)	(0.009)	(0.009)	(0.009)
Children aged 11–14	−0.016	−0.015	0.023*	0.013	−0.005
	(0.017)	(0.010)	(0.013)	(0.012)	(0.009)
Credit constraint	−0.004	0.009	−0.004	0.013	−0.014
	(0.026)	(0.018)	(0.018)	(0.018)	(0.012)
Land labor ratio	0.002	0.000	0.000	−0.001	0.000
	(0.001)	(0.001)	(0.001)	(0.001)	(0.001)
Mean land labor ratio in District	−0.012	0.003	−0.001	0.004	0.006
	(0.009)	(0.006)	(0.005)	(0.004)	(0.005)
Gender norm	−0.029	−0.001	0.024*	−0.006	0.012
	(0.018)	(0.012)	(0.013)	(0.012)	(0.009)
Rate of wage labor	−0.549***	0.17	0.258	−0.132***	0.252
	(0.019)	(0.403)	(0.453)	(0.010)	(0.473)
Distance to market	−0.001	0.00	−0.001	0.001	0.001**
	(0.001)	(0.001)	(0.001)	(0.001)	(0.001)
Log wage in district	−0.049	−0.007	−0.008	0.007	0.058
	(0.055)	(0.031)	(0.033)	(0.042)	(0.050)
Log mean expenditures	−0.187***	0.100*	−0.044*	0.046	0.085
	(0.056)	(0.059)	(0.027)	(0.058)	(0.069)

Notes: *, **, *** denote significance at the 1, 5, and 10 percent levels, respectively. Discrete changes from 0 to 1 for all variables except Gender norm, which shows the marginal effect of increasing the gap by one standard deviation. Standard error of changes in parentheses. Weighted data and standard errors are clustered at the small community level.

Table A1. Variable definition

Variable	Definition
Dependent variables
Own farm only	Household obtains all income from work on own farm
Own farm and agricultural wage	Household obtains income from work on own farm and agricultural waged work
Own farm and nonagricultural wage	Household obtains income from work on own farm and nonagricultural waged work
Own farm and self-employment	Household obtains income from work on own farm and non-farm self-employment
Mixed	Household has more than two income sources
Characteristics of head
Female head:
Monogamously married	Head of household is female and monogamously married
Polygamously married	Head of household is female and polygamously married
Divorced	Head of household is female and divorced
Widowed	Head of household is female and widowed
Never married	Head of household is female and never married
Male head:
Monogamously married	Head of household is male and monogamously married
Polygamously married	Head of household is male and polygamously married
Divorced	Head of household is male and divorced
Widowed	Head of household is male and widowed
Never married	Head of household is male and never married
De jure female head	Head of household is a female who is separated, divorced or has never married
De facto female head	Head of household is a female who is married or living with a man with whom she is in a relationship
Age of head	Age of head of household
Education of head	Years of education for head of household
Characteristics of household
Highest education	Highest level of education in the household
Male labor	Number of males aged 15–59 in the household
Female labor	Number of females aged 15–59 in the household
Children 0–1	Number of children aged 0–1 in the household
Children 2–5	Number of children aged 2–5 in the household
Children 6–10	Number of children aged 6–10 in the household
Children 11–14	Number of children aged 11–15 in the household
Land labor ratio	Area of plot/individuals aged 15–59
Constrained	A dummy that indicates whether the household applied for a loan and was turned down or whether they did not even try to borrow because they believed they would be refused, that it was too expensive or too much trouble, that they did not have enough collateral, or that they did not know any lenders.
Characteristics of district
Gender norm	Percentage of women aged 15–59 working for a wage/ percentage of men aged 15–59 working for a wage. Excluding the observation itself
Mean plot size, district	Mean area of plot, by district. Excluding the observation itself
Log(mean wage)	Mean wage in district (logarithm)
Expenditures district	Mean per capita expenditures in district (logarithm). Excluding the observation itself
Province
Central	Household lives in the central province
Coast	Household lives in the coastal province
Eastern	Household lives in the eastern province
Northeastern	Household lives in the northeastern province
Nyanza	Household lives in Nyanza province
Rift Valley	Household lives in the Rift Valley province
Western	Household lives in the western province