The document discusses gender and vulnerability in cut flower and vegetable value chains in Kenya. It notes that while horticultural exports have expanded employment, especially for women, much of this employment is temporary, low-paid, and insecure. Temporary and seasonal women workers in particular experience high vulnerability due to lack of benefits, job insecurity, and the need to balance productive and reproductive roles. Addressing this vulnerability through labor codes, corporate social responsibility programs, and fair trade certification can help improve conditions, but implementation challenges remain, especially for reaching temporary and migrant workers.

1. Gender and vulnerability in
the cut flower and vegetable
value chains in Kenya
Maggie Opondo
University of Nairobi
Advancing Agri-practice: Adding
value for women in agriculture
Workshop
KARI, Nairobi Kenya
23-24 May 2010

2. Overview
•Satisfying the ever-demanding tastes of global consumers has led supermarkets
and department stores to source products from farms and factories scattered
across the globe
•Today global value chains carrying fresh (cut flowers and vegetables) products
are a defining characteristic of production spaces, particularly in developing
countries where such chains provide important opportunities for income and
economic growth
•Export horticulture (vegetables & cut flowers) has expanded exponentially in
Kenya in the last two decades
•For instance, in the last seven years alone, horticulture has overtaken tea as the
principal foreign exchange earner

3. 70% of quality green
beans produced in
Kenya come to the UK

4. Gender and employment
• This has lead to an expansion of paid work in commercial agriculture
• The labor force includes a significant proportion of women
• This female employment is often temporary, low paid, informal and
insecure (i.e. vulnerable)
• This presentation mainly refers to the temporary (seasonal and
casual) workers who account for between 30-45% of labor in
horticulture

5. Gender and employment
•It draws on research on gender issues in the Kenyan-Europe
horticultural value chain
•Insecure workers are highly vulnerable to poverty, which is
compounded in the case of women who have to juggle their
reproductive roles with that of their productive ones
•The shift towards year-round sales of fresh produce has stimulated a
market for Kenyan horticultural products

6. Gender and employment
• Packing and preparation of fresh produce requires investment in pack
houses and food processing plants, posing challenges to the small
producers
• Small producers also generally lack access to sufficient funds to meet these
requirements
• Despite modernization of production, horticulture remains a labor
intensive sector, with labor accounting for 50-60% of farm costs
• Gender segregation is common with men occupying the more senior
permanent positions and women concentrated in more insecure positions
• This includes seasonal employment of 1-6 months and casual work

7. Flowers in a greenhouse

8. Washing and packing plant for fresh produce

9. Gender and employment
• Seasonality of production has always been an important factor in
determining demand for agricultural labor
• However, with economic upgrading in horticultural value chains the
seasons have been extended and demand for labor is mostly all year
round
• Although there has been a trend towards permanent employment
seasonal and casual workers expressed considerable feelings of job
insecurity

10. Gender and employment
• They are most exposed to potential dismissal and do not
benefit from the security and legislated entitlements of
permanent employment
• This insecurity has specific gender implications related in
some cases to women’s exclusion from benefits such as
maternity leave and sick pay, as well as the fact that many
workers leave their children behind in rural areas due to job
insecurity

11. Gender and employment
• Flexibility of employment is another key element behind
the large temporary employment in horticultural value
chains – women are often seen as more ‘flexible’ than male
workers
• Intense competition, falling prices and other macro-
economic factors (economic downturn, volcanic ash) have
created pressure on producers leading to minimization of
labor costs

12. Gender and employment
• Flexible employment allows employers to minimize the labor they retain by
varying the length of the working
• The need for flexibility is also driven by the northern buyers sourcing patterns
• Producers have to meet tight buyer schedules and often have to supply
additional products at short notice or if consumer demand changes
• High levels of female employment relate partly to the perceived ‘skill’ and
‘dexterity’ of women in handling delicate produce, which is key to
maintaining the quality demanded by northern buyers

13. Gender and employment
• But these skills have been largely socially instilled as girls are prepared for a
domestic role within society
• Despite undertaking tasks that add significant value, women can be
employed on low wages with little training
• They are seen as docile, compliant and accepting of poor employment
conditions often because they are ill-informed about their rights

14. Vulnerability of horticultural
workers
• Temporary women workers are entangled in a poverty trap
• Female workers generally work long hours for low pay and rarely have
access to benefits such as sick pay, medical care and maternity leave
• Poverty is compounded by their productive and reproductive roles
• Benefits (such as maternity leave, childcare provision and transport) which
enable women to balance unpaid caring work with paid work are often not
extended to temporary women workers
• The vulnerability is made worse by lack of employment insecurity and
involuntary periods out of work

15. Vulnerability of horticultural
• workers
Seasonal migrant and contract workers who are removed from their social
networks, or live in peri-urban shanty towns, lack basic forms of social
protection that traditionally constitute an important form of support
• For instance, the majority of rickets cases in Naivasha (the cut flower hub in
Kenya) come from flower farm workers’ children
• This is partly attributed to lack of provision of day care centers in Naivasha
• Redundant horticultural workers often turn to prostitution leading to an
increased incidence of HIV/Aids in Naivasha

16. Vulnerability of horticultural
workers
• Vulnerability also has a gender dimension
• Women temporary and contract workers are more likely to work for
shorter periods in the year than men and often earn lower wages for
comparable work than male colleagues
• Women are more likely to be juggling paid work with childcare and family
responsibilities
• They not only carry the risks arising from insecure and often informal work,
they also carry the risks of illness, accident and old age among family
dependents

17. Vulnerability of horticultural
workers
• If a child is sick and a temporary or contract worker has to take time off,
she may not only lose income but possibly her job
• The HIV/AIDS pandemic coupled with cost-sharing in the health service has
invariably increased the burden of health care on women
• Women who become pregnant also risk losing their jobs if they have no
formal right to maternity leave and often hide their pregnancy as a result
• This has health implications both for the expectant mother and unborn
child ( such as exposure to pesticides and physical stress)
• Thus for women workers caught between productive and reproductive
roles, their exposure to risk and vulnerability is magnified

18. Addressing vulnerability
• Legislation covering female temporary workers in agriculture is often
weak, particularly with regard to laws designed to protect women workers
from discrimination and guarantee them equal opportunities in the
workplace
• The Employment Act (2007) attempts to address the plight of casual and
female workers (casual employees for 90 days should be made permanent
and 4 month maternity leave)
• Nonetheless, implementation has been varied and some employers have
been reluctant to implement this
• It has also led to discrimination of employment of potential female workers

19. Addressing vulnerability
• Horticultural value chains have provided a potential route for addressing
vulnerability of workers through codes of labor practice
• These codes which set out minimum rights for workers ( such as health
and safety, pay and hours of work) have to be upheld by suppliers
• However while codes may benefit permanent workers they often fail to
reach temporary, migrant and contract workers and are weak at
addressing gender issues
• Most horticultural producers also pursue policies around corporate social
responsibility which can extend to include labor issues (KFC, FPEAK)

20. Addressing vulnerability
• The growth of fairtrade horticultural products (flowers and now
vegetables) also acts to support local producers and workers
• Fairtrade labelled goods guarantee the producers a minimum price and
offer a 15% social premium which is returned for social projects (schools,
clinics)
• Fairtrade covers small producers and also larger commercial farms where
social principles are met

21. Addressing vulnerability
• Where workers are employed, Fairtrade also has a code of practice
aimed at ensuring minimum employment standards
• However, global processes that are further reinforcing top-down and
technical interpretations of standards is epitomized in labour rights
with the emergence of the Global Social Compliance Programme,
GSCP
• Such global processes could threaten the gains made by labor codes
of conduct

22. Gender-specific improvements from codes
• Maternity
leave
• Equal
opportunities
policy
• Gender
Committees
• Gender friendly
workplaces

23. General social improvements from codes
• Sanitation
• Drinking
water
• Gender toilets
and showers
• Permanent
contracts
• Personal
Protective
Equipment
(PPEs)
• Social
Infrastructure