This document summarizes the Kenya Horticulture Competitiveness Project (KHCP), which aims to develop Kenya's horticulture industry through improving productivity, value addition, marketing, and trade. The project is funded by USAID from 2010-2015 and targets several provinces. Its goals include substantially increasing incomes for 200,000 smallholder farmers, half of whom will be women. The project takes an approach of working with private and public sector partners on objectives like maintaining exports and developing new crops. It identifies key gender constraints like social norms limiting women's employment and proposes solutions such as innovative payment schemes for women producers.

1. Improving agri-practice:
Adding Value for Women in
Agriculture
May 23rd 2011
Presenter: Fintrac

2. KHCP Coverage
• USAID funded
• 2010-2015
Targeted Provinces
• Central
• Eastern
• Coast
• RiftValley
• Western
• Nyanza

3. KHCP Mission Statement
• Contributing to a modern, thriving horticultural
production and distribution network.
• Supplies safe and affordable food to all Kenyans.
• Substantially increases incomes for 200,000 farmers.
• Improves the livelihoods of 200,000 rural household
members.
• Exploits untapped local & regional markets.
• Maintains European market share for fresh produce.
• Develops new value-added products.

4. Our approach
•Implemented in cooperation with Kenyan private
and public sector partners
Primary Goal
•Achieve a highly competitive Kenyan horticulture
industry
How? Through;
•Enhanced productivity
•Increased value-addition
•Improved value-chain coordination, marketing, and
trade promotion
•Improved business environment, and institutional
capacity

5. KHCP Objectives
•Maintaining and increasing exports
of horticultural products through
smallholder compliance with
international quality standards.
•Improving domestic markets by
increasing horticultural productivity.
•Developing and commercializing
new crops and processed products
for smallholders.

6. Our vision

7. KHCP’S Approach to Gender and Youth
•Actively encourage women and youth to participate
•Targets 200,000 beneficiaries, 50-60% women
•Introduction of technologies and crops that are gender
friendly across the entire value chain
•Subcontracting two specialist organization to provide BDS
trainings on gender and youth i.e. DTS and Making Cents
international

8. MAPPING THE VALUE CHAIN
Retail Trade Supermarkets, Open-air markets, Green Grocers
Financial
Wholesale Trade Local Markets Export Companies Regional Markets Institutions,
NGO’S, KEBS,
MOH, Kenya
Revenue
Authority, BDS
Processing Micro- Large-Scale
providers
Processors Processors
Intermediaries
Bulking, Sorting &
Distribution
MOA, NGO’s,
Primary Smallholder Producer Groups
Production Farmers
Research Institutions
Supply of e.g. KARI, Nursery
inputs Input
Associations
Suppliers

9. THE MOST CRITICAL GENDER-BASED CONSTRAINTS
IDENTIFIED
At the processing level…
•Social conditions restrict employment opportunities for
women in senior management and technical positions in
processing firms.
•Perceptions about appropriate work for men and women
constrain opportunities in factory/processing positions.
•Married women lack access to the proceeds from high value
horticulture crops (example passion fruits).

10. EVIDENCE OF THESE CONSTRAINTS
•Hired a man factory manager to oversee other men and
women factory workers because “men will not listen to
women managers.”
•Women are 90% of casual laborers and men make up 10%
of casual laborers.
•Married men collect proceeds from passion fruit sales.

11. IMPACT OF CONSTRAINT
•Sex segmented
employment patterns
reduce efficient allocation of
labor.
•Supplies of horticulture
crops (example passion
fruits) is reduced or irregular
thereby reducing the
competitiveness of the value
chain.

12. POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS
•Develop innovative payment schemes to ensure that
married women producers receive returns from their
labor.

13. THANK YOU