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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Keywords
Urban Agriculture, Women Empowerment, Challenge agricultural production