Gender analysis on milk value chain: a case of Tanga city and Iringa municipality

Gender-based inequality is a phenomenon that transcends the majority of the world‟s cultures, religions, nations and income groups. In most societies, the differences and inequalities are manifest in the responsibilities each are assigned, in the activities they undertake, in their access to and control over resources and in decision-making opportunities. A study of gender analysis on milk value chain was conducted in Tanga City and Iringa Municipality. The overall objective of this study was to examine gender relations that prevail in milk value chain activities in Tanga City and Iringa Municipality. Specifically the study intended to: identify roles played by different members of households in the milk value chain, to assess the gendered workload of actors in value chain, to determine gendered access to and control over dairy keeping resources, to assess gender decision making over resources in the household involved in the milk value chain. A cross-sectional research design was used in this study. A combined probability and non probability sampling was employed in this study. The data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 16.0 for windows. Results show that members of households play different roles in dairy keeping activities. Dairy keeping activities increased men‟s workload in Tanga City while increasing to women in the Iringa Municipality. Men and women have equal access to dairy farming resources but differ in control and decision making in the household. Gender education, improvement of extension services and financial institutions to give support to farmers was some of recommendations made for improvement of small scale dairy farmers involved in value chain activities.International Development Research Centre (IDRC