The Contribution of Smallholder Women Farmers to Food and Nutritional Security in Vihiga Sub-county, Vihiga County, Kenya

Abstract

Women contribute in many waystowards food and nutritional security particularly in the rural areas. Although smallholder women farmers have great potential to guarantee food and nutritional security, they have an even bigger role as the backbone of food production owing to their reproductive roles. They face limitations due to poor access to resources because of illiteracy, marginality, customs and a lack of capacity. Notably, more needs to be done to elucidate through research and document their importantrole in food and nutritional security in some of the more populous counties in Kenya presently.The main purpose was to determine how women farmers have contributed to food and nutritional security in Vihiga Sub-County and to recommend possible mitigating measures to the challenges faced by the smallholder women farmers in Vihiga Sub-County in their endeavor to achieve food security at family level. Feminist political ecology theory and the social relations theory were used to anchor the study. The target population comprised women smallholder farmers in Vihiga Sub County. Data was collected using in-depth interview of 8 women from each of the four wards, focused group discussions of between 10-12 women from each ward, observation and documents analysis.The units of analysis comprised the woman smallholder farmers in Vihiga County aged 18 years and above. Purposive sampling and snowballing methods were used to select the respondents.The data collected was analyzed qualitatively using thematic analysis. The study established that smallholder women farmers in Vihiga Sub County play a key role in promoting household food and nutritional security. The smallholder women farmers grow various food crops and also keep various animals including cows, goats, sheep, and pigs. The women provide the bulk of labor from land preparation, planting, weeding, harvesting, storage and cooking for the family. While at, they face numerous challenges. These include lack of access to farm inputs, lack of financial resources and poor access to credit, lack of access to agricultural extension services, lack of access to large land, and ecological challenges including climatic changes and pests. The study concludes that while smallholder women farmers have the capacity to promote food and nutritional security they face a myriad of challenges that need to be addressed.Hence the study recommends that smallholder women farmers should be supported by the governmentand financial institutions to enhance food production through economic support, use of quality inputs and access to extension services. Policy makers should appreciate, acknowledge and promote smallholder women farmers with a view to increasing the acreage under production through effective land governance and management policies from the local level to the national level.