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Article
Publication date: 9 November 2021

Mohamed A. Semkunde, Tumsifu Elly, Goodluck Charles, Johan Gaddefors and Linley Chiwona-Karltun

This study aims to examine how women's groups help women to navigate context-related barriers to their engagement in rural entrepreneurship. The paper combines the…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to examine how women's groups help women to navigate context-related barriers to their engagement in rural entrepreneurship. The paper combines the contextualisation of entrepreneurship framework and the feminist separatist theory to describe how women's groups in patriarchal rural communities enable women to circumvent context-related barriers and actively engage in rural entrepreneurship.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on a case study of 12 women's groups engaged in paddy farming, rice processing and marketing in rural Tanzania, this study draws on semi-structured interviews with 46 women, four focus group discussions, four in-depth key informant interviews and non-participant observation.

Findings

Rural women face unique context-related challenges that hinder them from effectively participating in rural entrepreneurship. Specifically, limited access to farmlands and profitable markets, lack of business networks, limited time, poverty and insufficient financial resources constrain women's engagement in entrepreneurship. To overcome these contextual barriers, rural women have organised themselves into groups to gain access to business services, business-related training, grants and business networks.

Research limitations/implications

This study contributes to the existing literature on contextualising entrepreneurship by focussing on how rural contexts may constrain women's entrepreneurial engagement while showing how women respond to contextual barriers that enable them to participate in rural entrepreneurship.

Practical implications

This study shows that women with low education can pursue rural entrepreneurship if they are supported through training and access to networks. This will support the performance of these groups of women.

Originality/value

This study offers new insights into the role of women's groups in navigating gender-related constraints that hinder women from participating in rural entrepreneurship within the patriarchal context of low-income countries. Thus, new perceptions for the gender and rural entrepreneurship theory and the policy implications thereof are proffered.

Details

International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship, vol. 14 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1756-6266

Keywords

Abstract

Purpose

Cassava production surged noticeably in Southeastern Africa beginning in the 1990s. The purpose of this paper is to examine the commercial responses and food security consequences of cassava production growth in the region.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper incorporates a mix of quantitative analysis, based primarily on original analysis of national farm household survey data, together with key informant interviews with value chain participants in the three neighboring countries of Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia.

Findings

In the cassava production zones, cassava's high productivity translates into per kilogram carbohydrate costs 60 per cent to 70 per cent of the cost of cereals such as maize and wheat, thereby opening up a range of profitable opportunities for commercialization of cassava‐based foods, feeds and industrial products. Despite this potential, cassava commercialization in Southeastern Africa remains in its formative stages, with only 10 per cent to 30 per cent of production currently marketed. Unlike West Africa, where cassava commercialization has centered on marketing prepared cassava‐based convenience foods, the emerging cassava markets in Southeastern Africa have centered on fresh cassava, low value‐added cassava flour, and experiments in industrial processing of cassava‐based starches, biofuels and feeds. Strategic investment in a set of key public goods (breeding, training in food sciences and food safety, and research on in‐ground cassava storage) can help to shape this transition in ways that benefit both commercial interests and the food security of vulnerable households.

Originality/value

The paper compares cassava commercialization across differing agro‐climatic zones, policy environments and food staple zones.

Details

Journal of Agribusiness in Developing and Emerging Economies, vol. 2 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2044-0839

Keywords

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