1. The role of gender in household decision making
on tree planting: A case study from Malawi
Seline Meijer
University College Dublin (UCD)
World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF)
Supervisors: Maarten Nieuwenhuis (UCD),
Delia Catacutan & Sileshi Weldesemayat (ICRAF)
ATBC Meeting Bonito, World Congress on Agroforestry, New Delhi, India
11 February 2014
•
19 June 2012

2. Background
 Increasingly, the traditional assumption that the
senior male of the household functions as the
household head and primary decision maker is being
questioned.
 When it comes to agroforestry, the role of the head of
the household in decision making at household level
has not been documented well.

3. Aims of the study
i.
To identify which household members are the main
decision maker(s) for various agricultural activities
including tree planting;
ii.
To evaluate the outcomes of household decision
making in terms of actual trees planted by farming
households in two rural districts in Malawi.

4. Malawi
 High levels of poverty
 About 75 % of the population are
subsistence farmers
 Small farm size (< 1ha)
 Most important food crop is maize
 Low education levels

5. Malawi and kinship
 Patrilineal social organisation: Households reside in
the village of the husband after marriage (virilocal
residence) and the husband holds the land rights.
 Matrilineal social organisation: Households reside in
the village of the wife after marriage (uxorilocal
residence) and the wife holds the land rights.

6. Study area
 Two study sites:
 Mzimba (northern Malawi)
Low population densities
High forest cover
Mostly patrilineal kinship
 Chiradzulu (southern Malawi)
High population densities
Low forest cover
Mostly matrilineal kinship

7. Methods
 Household survey of 135
married household heads
 Mzimba:
 65 male household heads
 2 female household heads
 Chiradzulu:
 41 male household heads
 27 female household heads

8. Methods
 Focus Group Discussions (FGDs): 8 per district

9. Results – part 1
Who makes the decisions
on agricultural activities;
in particular on tree planting
and tree management?

10. Results – part 1: survey
Activities
Head (%)
Spouse (%)
Joint (%)
N
Crops to plant
50
10
40
134
Sowing
50
7
43
135
Weeding
47
8
45
135
Fertilizer
39
14
47
134
Trees to plant
67
7
26
134
Tree management
63
8
29
133
Animals to rear
52
12
36
135
Selling farm products
40
17
43
135
Credit
45
19
36
135
Participation in meetings
54
1
45
135
Firewood collection
27
62
11
135

11. Results – part 1
 Gender:
 Male-headed households: decision making on tree
planting was done more often by the household head
alone
 Female-headed households: more joint decision making
by the husband and wife together.

12. Results – part 1
 Kinship:
 Patrilineal households:
decisions on tree planting
and tree management were
made more often by the
household head alone.
 Matrilineal households:
joint decision making
was more common

13. Results – part 1: FGDs
Activities
Husband
5
Wife
3
Joint
8
Other
0
16
Sowing
6
2
8
0
16
Weeding
4
2
9
1
16
Fertilizer
2
2
11
1
16
Trees to plant
12
1
3
0
16
Tree management
14
2
0
0
16
Animals to rear
4
1
10
1
16
Selling farm products
4
2
10
0
16
Credit
5
7
4
0
16
Participation in meetings
4
6
6
0
16
Firewood collection
0
16
0
0
16
Crops to plant
N

14. Results – part 2
How does decision making by the household head,
the spouse or joint decision making affect
the number of trees planted?

15. Results – part 2
 Negative binomial regression model to explore the
relationship of gender, kinship, decision making on
tree planting and tree management with the density of
trees planted
 In the best fit model, the density of planted trees was
associated with kinship (P < 0.001) and the decision
maker on tree management (P = 0.040).
Gender of the household head was not significant.

16. Results – part 2
140
Matrilineal
120
Patrilineal
100
80
60
40
20
0
Head
Spouse
Joint

17. Conclusions
 The findings of this study demonstrate that the
assumption that the household head is the primary
decision maker is an oversimplification of reality.
 No clear pattern of household decision making
emerged from our data, which indicates that decision
making is a complex process and cannot be reduced to
a simple model.

18. Conclusions
 Gender of the household head affected who was the
main decision maker within the household, and this in
turn affected the density of trees planted.
 Tree planting and management seem to be considered
as mainly the responsibility of men in our study areas;
however, joint decision makers were more successful
in terms of the numbers of trees planted on their land.

19. Implications
 Research and extension efforts should not merely
target the household head but take into consideration
that decision making in relation to farming and tree
planting is multidimensional and site-specific.
 Assumptions on headship and gender roles need to be
locally checked and validated, for agroforestry
research, policies and projects to be relevant and
effective.

20. Acknowledgements
 Conference organisers
 My supervisors
 Maarten Nieuwenhuis (UCD)
 Delia Catacutan (ICRAF)
 Sileshi Weldesemayat (ICRAF)
 My colleagues at ICRAF
 Irish Aid for funding my research
& the farmers in Malawi

21. Thank you!
 Contact: s.meijer@cgiar.org