Socio-economic factors affecting women’s involvement in coffee production in Kirumba Sub-county, Rakai district, Uganda

Abstract

The study examined the social economic factors affecting women involvement in coffee production in Kirumba Sub-county Rakai District. Data was collected using structured questionnaire, focus group discussion, documentary review and observations. A total of 120 respondents were interviewed. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and univariate correlation model. The findings reveal that 55% of the respondents were male and 45 % were females. Majority of respondents were married with a mean of 44.2%. 97% of respondents obtained formal education and 80.8% depend entirely on farming as the main occupation. Women who have access to land, household heads and those who have access to credit have fully participated in coffee production and performed better than men. It was also discovered that farm size and access to credit have a positive significance on involvement of women in coffee production, with significance levels of .000<.005 and .001<.005 respectively. The major challenges faced by women in coffee production were prolonged drought which was ranked number one, limited ownership of land by women was ranked number two, lack of land was ranked number three, gender imbalance in decision making ranked number four and lack of extension staff in coffee production was ranked number five among others. The study concluded that the number of women involved in coffee production is still very law compared to their male counterparts. The research therefore recommended that gender should be mainstreamed in order to increase the volumes of coffee produced in Kirumba Sub-county Rakai district.