Determinants of women participation in agribusiness development projects in Sotik Sub-county, Bomet county, Kenya.

Abstract

In recent times, there is an extensive amount of literature research devoted to the determinants of women participation in agribusiness development projects .Nevertheless, the bulk of such research tends to concentrate on development projects in developed countries; very limited studies have provided such research on agribusiness in Africa, and even less in Kenya. This paper fills this gap; it incorporates an analysis of determinants of Women participation in agribusiness development projects since the new constitution of Kenya was inaugurated in 2010. The evolution of Women in development to gender and development In the 1970s, research on African farmers noted that, far from being gender neutral, development was gender blind and could harm women. Women and development issues have been on the world agenda since the United Nations organized the first women‘s conference in Mexico in 1975.In Africa, estimates of the time contribution of women to agricultural activities go up to 60-80 percent in some countries. Women take their much time in agriculture which is the source of the economic status of the country yet they are negligible and inferior in the eyes of the male counterparts. This has deteriorated the lives of women who have the potential to apply their skills in a more efficient and effective manner as compared to the Men. Many of them are hopeless since they have been demotivated due to gender inequality hindering their capabilities, competency, and intellectual standards thus enhancing a red-tape in the society. Added to this, in spite of all these government efforts to modernize and establish development frameworks in the management of public and self-help group projects through the ministry of planning, the implementation of women participation in agribusiness development projects which was to increase efficiency and effectiveness in service delivery remains a pipe dream. The objectives of the study include: education, culture, funding, government policies, and technology as determinants of Women participation in agribusiness development projects. The study will adopt random sampling method whereby among 150 agribusiness development projects in the Sotik Sub-County,15 projects were chosen with sample size of 90 .Questionnaires which are open ended and closed will be used in order to obtain in-depth information from the respondents. Data were presented using tables .By use of chi-square hypothesis testing, the results were to reject the null hypothesis against the alternate hypothesis at 0.1(10%) level of significance that independent variables namely: education, culture, funding, government policies and technology had significant effect on Women participation in agribusiness development projects which was contrary to the null hypothesis that stated no relationship.