Inequities in the delivery of services to a female farm clientele: some implications for policy

Abstract

This paper is based on data collected in 1975 from a geographically stratified sample of 212 small-scale farm households in one administrative location of Kakamega District, western Kenya. It is found that women farm managers experience a persistent and pervasive bias in the delivery of the government agricultural services to which they are entitled. The bias increases in intensity as the value of the service increases. Moreover, the bias holds under a number of different controls including economic standing, size of land holding and demonstrated interest in adopting agricultural innovations in a timely way. Despite these inequities in access to services, women farm manager in the area appear to be as productive and as willing to adopt innovations as other types of farmers. A number of suggestions are made to deal with the problem of inequity in the delivery of agricultural services.