Are Women Less Productive Farmers?

African governments and international
development groups see boosting productivity on smallholder
farms as key to reducing rural poverty and safeguarding the
food security of farming and non-farming households.
Prompting smallholder farmers to use more fertilizer has
been a key tactic. Closing the productivity gap between male
and female farmers has been another avenue toward achieving
the same goal. The results in this paper suggest the two are
related. Fertilizer use and maize yields among smallholder
farmers in Uganda are increased by improved access to
markets and extension services, and reduced by ex ante
risk-mitigating production decisions. Standard ordinary
least squares regression results indicate that gender
matters as well; however, the measured productivity gap
between male and female farmers disappears when gender is
included in a list of determinants meant to capture the
indirect effects of market and extension access.