Gender and Productivity Differentials in Smallholder Groundnut Farming in Malawi: Accounting for Technology Differences

Abstract

The gender gap in agricultural productivity has been of ongoing interest to development policy and we revisit the subject in the context of groundnut, an important food and cash legume in Sub Saharan Africa. We address production technology differences between male and female managers of groundnut plots and examine the implications for the male–female difference in productivity. Using cross-sectional data, two recent stochastic meta-frontier (SMF) techniques are coupled with statistical matching to examine gender-related technology, managerial, single and total factor productivity (TFP) gaps. The results reveal different production technologies in use by male and female producers, and technology (6–7 per cent points) and managerial (3–5 per cent points) differentials, which translate into significant male advantages in land productivity (6.2 per cent) and TFP (15.3 per cent). A heterogeneity analysis provides valuable insights: Technology, managerial and TFP gaps, which favour male managers, decrease with age, years of schooling, exposure to extension, and use of hired labour and improved seeds; but increase with total cultivated area. Closing the productivity gap will require expanding female production possibilities through use of improved inputs and practices and enhancing managerial skill and know-how through extension.

Keywords:

• Productivity
• Gender
• Production technology
• Stochastic meta-frontier
• Groundnut
• Malawi

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to David Hoisington, Jamie Rhodes and the rest of the team at the Peanut Innovation Lab; Carl Larkins, Jeremy Venable, Elizabeth Venable and other team members at Feed the Future Malawi Ag Diversification for their insights and funding. We acknowledge the contributions of Lansen Chikopa, Stanlee Juma and other officers of Exagris and Horizon Farms in supporting the implementation of the field survey. We would also like to thank Michée Lachaud, two anonymous reviewers, and the editorial team. Lastly, we thank Lydia Mkandawire, Jonas Mwambulu, Tiwonge Longwe for the ceaseless push to get the field work done. Data and codes used for the analysis will be shared upon request.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary Materials

Supplementary Materials are available for this article which can be accessed via the online version of this journal available at https://doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2021.2008364

Notes

1. Actions of the anti-smoking lobby continue to pose negative prospects for tobacco demand globally, diminishing Malawi’s tobacco exports and income. In 2015, tobacco exports represented about 60 per cent of the country’s foreign exchange earnings.

2. At the time of the study, Exagris and Horizon farms were under joint management.

3. Age categorisation is based on the definition in Malawi’s youth policy document.

Additional information

Funding

This work was partially supported by the USAID Feed the Future Malawi Ag Diversification through the Peanut Innovation Lab under Grant number [USAID Feed the Future Malawi Ag Diversification/Peanut Innovation Lab AID-612-H-16-000008].