9. Honey: constraints to acting in markets Constraints to acting in markets Individual woman Mixed group Women-only group Get a low price X Gender issues and inequality Women lack decision making power within the HH and outside. Access to information/ training etc. X X Lack of information on prices and markets X Low bargaining power (of farmers) X Family responsibilities of women (lack of free time) X X X Restrictions placed by husband X X X Pesticide sprayed during the day affects bees X X X Modern beehive management is challenging for farmers used to traditional beehives X X X
10. Milk: benefits to women of CA Community Inputs Training Stable market Higher incomes Social support Saving & Credit Reduced cost & time Increase Asset of the CA Total Sebatatmit 9 10 30 56 35 140 Andassa 23 30 27 23 27 130 Tis-Abay 32 63 23 40 2 160
Government long term plan and policy like Planned and Accelerated & Sustained Development to End Poverty (PASDEP), Agriculture Development Led Industrialization (ADLI), Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP) support the commercialization of agri. Sector.
Women in male headed households are marginalized. Women are often limited to the house and home garden, it is not the norm for them to attend meetings, participate in community affairs and decision-making. And agricultural extension workers do not focus on women and their needs. Land ownership and title deeds, Women not considered as farmers
Polygamy – creates problems for second and subsequent wives. While husband is alive he determines how much land each wife is allocated, but upon his death traditionally the first wife inherits land and others share. Creating a problem for the other wives. Limmu Inarra and the intervention and support of OGB on land
Commercialization of milk: this sub-sector is one traditionally controlled by women. But as soon as a milk cooperative is established it is the men who become members (less than ¼ of members are women). The cooperative is run on a daily basis by women (both technical aspects and financial) but men control the leadership. Material benefits from cooperatives, non-material benefits from savings groups and SHGs Where cooperatives. function (coffee, honey, milk) members benefit But only 10-20% of members tend to be women (FHH) Vegetables West Gojam virtuous circle example: income from honey is saved at a savings group (formal or informal), savings then invested e.g. in modern beehive, or purchase chickens or even a cow. This in turn enables a woman to increase her income, save more etc.
One of the sub-sectors that primary cooperatives are well established all along the VC Coffee is the cash crop of Ethiopia and traditionally is viewed as a male crop. Women though are involved in virtually all stages of production and even some processing. But as the women FGD participants explained - a woman’s role ends and her husband takes over when the coffee is sold. Out of the 84% rural population 49.4% are women Crucial role in the coffee sector starting from seeding to cupping, 55% participated in homestead seedling preparation 31% land and coffee tree management (slashing of weed, Hoeing, manure, mulching), 22% in seedling, planting, transplanting to the field (Staking, pitting, planting), 37% in harvesting coffee picked by women and have patience in picking red cherry, reduce breakage of branches), 40% in processing, 41% in storage, 65% in drying, 99% of hand sorting of defective beans at the export processing done by women, 48% of the experts in coffee liquoring unit are female, 15-20% in selling red cherries to pulping stations, 10-15% in selling sun-dried coffee to collectors. Yet, From close to 3 million coffee farmers, only 7.2% of women participated on training and got extension advice Decision making power of women limited, Women Limited, access to Producer Org/Union, Limited Market Information system, Limited Export processing unit No women focused extension Services, Limited Credit Services for both men & female Farmers, Limited transport services from farm to the district centre, No market Linkage mechanism, Limited Business development Services, Lack of access to Credit for Married women, Limited storage and hull plant. Formal cooperatives dominate the sub-sector – provide inputs and purchase the coffee. And the sub-sector is very structured, with cooperatives being part of a hierarchical federated structure. These cooperatives are dominated by men. WCA was found in informal labour sharing groups called dadoo – here women pool their labour and work on each other’s plots. They are also beginning to sell their labour (10birr per day) Decision making power of women limited, Women Limited, access to Producer Org/Union, Limited Market Information system, Limited Export processing unit, No women focused extension Services, Limited Credit Services for both men & female Farmers, Limited transport services from farm to the district centre, No market. Linkage mechanism, Limited Business development Services/I, Lack of access to Credit for Married women, Limited storage and hull plant
Honey value chain has been due to its potential to reduce poverty among smallholder farmers particularly women and landless. Honey and its products have a good market demand in domestic and international markets. Through beekeeping interventions income can be increased up to 6-8 times 3 . The activity can be done at homestead and can be managed by women easily. The honey produced is organic and environment friendly and prioritised by the government as a high value commodity.
Honey is very sought after and market demand exceeds supply. Currently modern beehives are being introduced which produce at least twice as much as traditional beehives. However, these need to be properly equipped and maintained to prevent the spreading of disease and colony loss. Hence the transition to modern beehives requires training. When looking at constraints it is evident that individual women face many more constraints than women who are in mixed or women only groups. It is worth mentioning here that women only SHGs have been set up under the honey cooperative. These women save on a weekly basis, and receive training from the honey union on beehive management. Consider benefits, savings ranked first, followed by training (in bee colony management) and increased production.
Milk farmers in West Gojam zone face big variations in demand throughout the year - during the 120 fasting days set by the Christian orthodox church, milk and meat may not be consumed. Other challenges that individual women milk producers face include finding a buyer, transporting milk to the market without spoiling and the presence of thieves in the market (according to the constraints ranking). Milk cooperatives existed in 3 of the 4 communities visited – these purchase milk from the women smallholders on a daily basis. Benefit ranking shows very clearly that women are benefitting from membership in the milk cooperative. higher incomes are most important for 2 communities (because they have a guaranteed buyer the milk cooperative and this purchases some milk even during fasting periods). Access to a stable market scores highly in all the communities as does reduced cost and time (2 or 3 rank). Traditionally women have been responsible for milk production. However, commercialisation of the sector is leading to men taking over. Women constitute only 18% of milk cooperative members, and men dominate leadership positions and decision-making.
Maize is generally sold in local markets and involves no value addition. In the study communities, the cooperatives were not really functioning. Farmers prefer to sell to market traders. Women in this cooperatives access land in their own names. Exception was the Bikiltu Gibe group in Laf-takka which is engaged in selected maize seed multiplication – done on irrigated land. As the chapatti diagram shows, this group receives support from a range of actors including an INGO, a research centre, the Oromia seed enterprise, the local administration. It should be noted that exactly half the members are women, although men dominate decision-making.
Commercialization of milk: this sub-sector is one traditionally controlled by women. But as soon as a milk cooperative is established it is the men who become members (less than ¼ of members are women). The cooperative is run on a daily basis by women (both technical aspects and financial) but men control the leadership. Vegetables West Gojam virtuous circle example: income from honey is saved at a savings group (formal or informal), savings then invested e.g. in modern beehive, or purchase chickens or even a cow. This in turn enables a woman to increase her income, save more etc.
Jimma zone choosing one sub-sector is difficult: neither coffee nor maize is a traditional woman’s crop, and in the maize and spices sub-sectors there is little effective CA both in terms of production and marketing. The exception is the maize seed growers cooperative in For the 1-2 sub-sectors that the research will focus on issues to be explored include: The role of external agents in CA, what types of external support CA groups receive, which is most sustainable, has the most long-term impact and which ones have material and non-material benefits for women. Linkages between CA groups within one community. In both Jimma and West Gojam zone we have seen that it is not only the multi-purpose cooperative and specialist commodity cooperative that play an important role in production and marketing, but also that membership of other groups such as savings and credits, dadoo enable women to participate more fully in the cooperatives. Exploring these linkages further would be beneficial Unmet demand in improved seed production indicates that this sector has the potential to be profitable. How can CA be designed and managed so that women benefit ?
