Intrahousehold Gender Relations in Sorghum and Millet Production Resources: Evidence from Male- and Female-Headed Households in Southern Malawi

Sorghum and millet are important sources of food and nutrition security among smallholder farmers in Malawi. The majority of farmers engaged in sorghum and millet production in southern Malawi are women, and they are disadvantaged by inequalities in the form of access to, control over and entitlement to, production resources compared to their male counterparts. This chapter addresses intrahousehold gender relations in sorghum and millet production among adult males and adult females in male- and female-headed households in Chikwawa and Nsanje Districts of southern Malawi. The study employed mixed methods approach. A Harvard access and control matrix was employed to learn who had access to and control over production resources. To understand the gender relations dynamics, Chi-Square tabulations and content analysis were used to analyse the association between the gender of the household head and the gender of the adult household member with access to, control over, and entitlement to production resources. Our findings reveal that there were more adult male than female members in MHHs who had access to all production resources; on the other hand, there were more adult female than male members in FHHs who had access to the same resources. In MHHs, there were more adult male members than female members who controlled and were entitled to land, labour, seed, farm tools, manure, credit, extension services and transportation. Likewise, in FHHs more adult female members than male members controlled and were entitled to seed, credit, extension services and transport. In FHHs, more adult males than females controlled land. Adult male and female members in FHHs equally controlled and were entitled to labour, manure and farm tools. The chapter concludes that the pattern of access to, control over and entitlement to resources in sorghum and millet does not expedite equal outcomes for adult male and female members in MHHs and FHHs, except for the control of and entitlement to labour, manure and farm tools in FHHs. Agricultural development interventions promoting equitable access to institutional support services and productive resources in Sub Saharan Africa must be informed by intrahousehold dynamics affecting men and women to bridge gender gaps in context and reduce the structural disadvantages against women farmers.