The Role of Urban Agriculture on Women Empowerment in Addis Ababa: The Case of Vegetable, Dairy and Poultry Production Program Beneficiaries in Akaki Kality Sub City
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Date
2021-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Urban agriculture considered as a means of women empowerment and poverty alleviation specially minimizing food insecurity of urban poor. Thus this study is aimed to evaluate the role of urban agriculture in women empowerment considering political, social, economic and psychological dimensions among women engaged in urban farming at Akaki sub-city, Addis Ababa. Quantitative research design was mainly employed by complementing it with a qualitative approach to triangulate the findings. A total of 274 study subjects were selected for quantitative study and 14 key informants were selected for qualitative interview. Five dimensions and 10 indicators (5DE) were used to measure empowerment and multiple linear regressions were estimated to assess predictors of empowerment index. Thematic analysis was done for qualitative data and responses with similar ideas were summarised and discussed. The study finding revealed that women farmer in the study area empowered with 80% of empowerment proportion and 0.93 5DE scores. Control over autonomy in production, control over income, and decision on Purchase, sale, or transfer of assets were the three top contributing indicators for women empowerment. However, access to loans or credit was the least contributing indicator. Money-saving habits, years of stay in the activity, and women's education status were some of the factors which were positively linked with the empowerment of women. Based on the qualitative finding women are highly benefited from their participation in urban agriculture in terms of getting access to income, having a good social cohesion, and access to fresh food. Adequate land, waste disposal site, and inadequate support from governmental bodies, inadequate working land, and lack of finance were challenging situations for urban women farmers. Generally, urban farming highly contributes to women's empowerment therefore government should provide different support for women farmer to sustain women empowerment.
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Urban Agriculture, Women Empowerment, Challenge agricultural production