Effect of Women Empowerment in Agriculture on Household Food Security Index in Benin

Abstract

In Benin, the agricultural sector occupies at least 70% of the labour force, contributes nearly 36% of GDP formation and provides about 88% of Benin's export earnings (MALF, 2018). The study on the Comprehensive Food Security and Vulnerability Analysis (CFSVA, 2017) showed that 10% of the population investigated were food insecure. Women represent 51.2% of the population in Benin according to the fourth General Population and Housing Census (RGPH4, 2013). But there is slightly more food insecurity among female-headed households (12%) than their male counterparts (9%), especially in rural areas (CFSVA, 2017). In solving the problem of food insecurity among women in Benin, this research examined the effect of women empowerment in agriculture on household food Security in Benin. This research aims also to determine factors that affect household food Security in Benin. The data used comes from the Global Analysis of Vulnerability and Food Security survey (CFSVA, 2017). The results of the logistic regression model estimation show that the factors that affect significantly household food Security Index in Benin are: women's empowerment index in agriculture, level education, urban rural and land size. The results show also that women's empowerment index in agriculture is positively correlated with food security index. Thus, the likelihood of a household being food security increases when women's empowerment in agriculture increases. Women's agricultural empowerment increases the household food security index by 3.97 percentage points. The results point to the very important role of women's agricultural empowerment in solving food insecurity in rural Benin.