An economic analysis of gender roles in soya bean value addition and marketing in Kenya: a case of smallholder farms in Western Kenya

The study investigated the economics of productive gender roles in smallholder soya bean value-addition (processing) in Western Kenya. Multistage sampling technique was applied. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected from 370 interviewees using a semi-structured, pre-tested questionnaire in 2011/2012. Data analyses encompassed gender, descriptive and inferential statistics/stochastic frontier modelling. Results showed women dominated (74.0%) the soya bean value-adding activities; men (17.0%); women and men (4.0%); women and children (4.0%) and children alone (1.0%). The value-adding firms/farms were technically-inefficient with a mean of 46.0% and efficiencies of 8.0%-24.0% due to many negatively-signed and statistically-significant coefficients (p < 0.05). The values-added/kilogram ranged from KES 30-290 and were profitable amidst constraints faced. Most factors/costs that significantly affected profitability/returns to soya bean value-adding were significant (p-value ≤ 0.05) at either 1%/5%/10%. County governments/other stakeholders' interventions would positively impact processors' efficiency for increased profitability.