Page 34 - Azerbaijan State University of Economics

THE JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC SCIENCES: THEORY AND PRACTICE, V.81, # 2, 2024, pp. 30-59

More than a fifth of rural households (22%) are food insecure compared to 10.5% of
urban households. In rural areas, the most common sources of income are agriculture
and small businesses, while in urban areas; these are public or private skilled labour
(37.1%) and traders (20.3%). Approximately 22% of households have inadequate
food consumption, including 18% with borderline and 3% with poor food
consumption. The situation has deteriorated compared to the 2011 CFSVA, which is
an immediate call for concern. This study therefore seeks to address the following
research objectives: (i) discuss the determinants of women empowerment in
Cameroon, (ii) investigate the actual effects of women empowerment on agricultural
production in Cameroon and (iii) to verify the heterogeneity effect of women
empowerment on agricultural production by marital status.

LITERATURE REVIEW
Bahiigwa (1999) studied women's empowerment in agriculture and agricultural
productivity in rural maize farmer households in western Kenya. They applied a cross-
sectional instrumental-variable regression method to a data set of 707 maize farm
households from western Kenya, and found that women’s empowerment in
agriculture significantly increases maize productivity. Furthermore, the results show
heterogeneous effects with respect to women’s empowerment on maize productivity
for farm plots managed jointly by a male and female and plots managed individually
by only a male or female. More specifically, the results suggest that female- and male-
managed plots experience significant improvements in productivity when the women
who tend them are empowered. These findings provide evidence that women’s
empowerment contributes not only to reducing the gender gap in agricultural
productivity, but also to improving, specifically, productivity from farms managed by
women. Sharaunga et al (2016) conducted a study on understanding the dimensions
of women’s empowerment that influence food security among rural households
considered as crucial to inform policy. It was found that households headed by women
with higher levels of economic agency, physical capital empowerment, psychological
empowerment and farm financial management skills empowerment were more likely
to be food secure due to increased agricultural productivity.

Slathia (2014) carried out a study on the participation of women in agriculture in India
which is a developing and predominately agrarian economy. The study showed that
70% of its population is rural, and of those households, 60% engage in agriculture as
their main source of income with about 63% of all economically active men engaged
in agriculture as compared to 78% of women. He observed that women play a
significant role in agricultural development and allied activities including main crop
production, live-stock production, horticulture, post-harvesting operations etc.

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