Abstract:
This study aimed at analyzing gender role in coffee value chain in Jimma Zone with specific
objectives of mapping gender sensitive coffee value chain and actor’s role; assessing women’s
empowerment level and its determinants and analyzing determinants of women participation in
coffee marketing. Multiple linear regression and Tobit models were used to analyze factors
influencing women’s empowerment and coffee supply by women, respectively. The value chain
analysis revealed that men and women involved in coffee value chain either as a major actor or
as daily laborer. Men’s involvement was observed as major actor in each segment of the value
chain where as women are concentrated in production part of the value chain. As a daily laborer
in coffee business, women were mainly engaged in processing coffee in cooperatives and coffee
milling houses. And also in ECX women were hired to separate different quality of coffee
supplied by producers and traders. Margin analysis revealed that women sold 70% of their
coffee through channel which contain producers, wholesalers and retailers relatively which was
low earning channel (42.6%). During the production year of 2015, coffee producers and traders
faced the following major challenges; coffee disease (coffee berry and wilt disease), poor road
infrastructure, lack of facilities for coffee processing, limited financial support especially for
women coffee producers. Therefore, farmers should have access to disease resistant coffee
verities. Factors determining coffee supply by women were identified using Tobit model and;
coffee area of the household, training and extension were the significant factors that positively
affected the amount of coffee marketed by women. Thus, targeting women in training and
extension provision is of paramount importance. Women empowerment was assessed by
developing composite empowerment index and it shows that women in coffee producing
household in Jimma Zone were categorized into low empowerment level (having mean score of
0.439 which is within the range of UNDP’s categorization for low empowerment (0.1-0.5). OLS
was used to identify determinants of women empowerment and accordingly education level and
membership to women association positively affected women's empowerment level. Therefore,
the ongoing support for women’s education should be intensified and also supporting in forming
association and/or groups becomes instrumental to empower women.
