Associations between Maternal Participation in Agricultural Decision-Making and Child Nutrition in Semiarid Kenya

ABSTRACT

This study explores the associations between childhood growth measures and maternal participation in agricultural decision-making in chronically food-insecure semiarid Kenya. We collected anthropometric measures from 221 mother and child pairs. Maternal participation in agricultural decision-making was measured in a follow-up study. Using Kruskal–Wallis H test and Dunn’s pairwise comparison, we find a statistically significant positive association between child growth and maternal participation in agricultural decision-making. Similar associations are found when controlled for social–demographic variables, particularly among poor households, male-headed households, daughters, children 6–16 months old, and mothers with normal body mass index. The research contributes to our understanding in the nexus of agriculture, gender dynamics, and childhood undernutrition in rural African contexts.

KEYWORDS:

• Agriculture
• anthropometry
• causal loop
• gender
• Kenya
• participation

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the participants for their time and participation. This research was part of a project titled: Enhancing Ecologically Resilient Food Security in the Semi-Arid Midlands of Kenya, led by McGill University and KALRO (Principal Investigators: Gordon M. Hickey and Lutta W. Muhammad). The authors would like to thank Dr. Yi-Sheng Chao, Dr. Bernard Pelletier, Ashlee-Ann Pigford, and anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on the paper.

Notes

1. Assets used to construct the household asset index were clock, radio, television, mobile phone, solar panel, bicycle, motorcycle, animal cart, vehicle, boat, corrugated iron material used for roof, cement or ceramic tiles used for floor, and latrine with a slab or ventilated improved pit latrine.

Additional information

Funding

This work was carried out with the aid of a grant from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Ottawa, Canada, and with the financial support of the Government of Canada provided through Global Affairs Canada (GAC) and various direct and indirect contributions by the Government of the Republic of Kenya through the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO). June Po would like to acknowledge the additional funding support she received through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), the Margaret A. Gilliam Fellowship in Food Security, and le Réseau de Recherche en Santé des Populations du Québec.