Speaker
Description
Sustainability standards such as Fairtrade, Organic, and Rainforest Alliance have gained importance over recent years, partly because of growing consumer concerns for environmental and social consequences of agricultural production. In western countries, the demand for products with sustainability labels are rising, especially for foods imported from developing countries like coffee, tea, and cocoa. Since sustainability standards involve smallholder farmers, this shift in consumption may possibly contribute to rural development and poverty reduction in developing countries.
The importance of this topic is also reflected in recent literature. Many studies explore income effects of certification schemes, but findings are often mixed. Some studies find significant farmer income gains, while other studies show that higher and more stable prices and improved practices do not always translate to higher household incomes. Additionally, results tend to depend heavily on country context due to difference in yield quality and different stages of market development. Beyond income, other measures of farmers’ welfare, like nutrition, have received much less attention. In developing countries, many of the undernourished population are smallholder farmers. Hence, it is crucial to better understand the effects agricultural production has on nutrition. Sustainability standards might play an important role for nutrition among smallholder farmers. They link farmers to high-value markets and simultaneously have the potential to offset adverse effects of agricultural commercialization on gender roles by focusing on empowering women in the value chain. Focusing on gender equity in agricultural commercialization is especially important for nutrition, because female-controlled income is often more important for household nutrition. Although there are studies investigating gender implications of certification, the link between gender effects and nutrition has remained largely unexplored. We are aware of only one other study by Chiputwa and Qaim (2016) which explicitly looks at women’s empowerment as a pathway of the impact of sustainability standards on household nutrition among coffee farmers in Uganda. However, the authors use a very narrow definition of women’s empowerment only considering women’s control over coffee revenues. Research on women’s empowerment suggests that much more nuanced insights into different domains of empowerment are needed to fully understand the impact it has on household welfare. We intend to add to the sparse literature on impacts of sustainability standards on farmers’ nutrition. We further aim to give new insights into women’s empowerment as a potential pathway by using a more differentiated assessment of women’s empowerment inspired by the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI).
In our analysis we use primary data from both certified and non-certified female Rwandan coffee farmers from five different districts to account for regional differences in coffee production.
Employing inverse probability weighted regression adjustment (IPWRA) and mediation analysis, we analyze impacts of certification on farmer’s nutrition and investigate women’s empowerment as a potential impact pathway. We reduce the possibility of selection bias by conditioning on a broad set of covariates.
Our results show a positive association between certification and dietary quality. We observe that certified female farmers consume more micro-nutrients and a larger diversity of food groups. Their diets are richer in food groups like fruits and vegetables (including vitamin A rich fruits and vegetables), whole grains, pulses, and nuts and seeds. Moreover, certified female farmers are more likely to meet the recommendations of global dietary guidelines (GDRs) and consume food groups associated with protection against non-communicable diseases.
In our mediation analysis, we aim to explore women’s empowerment as a potential pathway of certification’s impact on nutrition. Our mediation analysis shows that there is a significant positive association between certification and women’s empowerment. Additionally, we find strong associations between women’s empowerment on dietary quality specifically for dietary diversity, adherence with GDRs, and dietary factors that are protective against NCDs. We also observe that women’s empowerment is negatively associated with dietary risk factors while the direct association between certification and the NCD-R indicator remained positive. Possibly, effects of women’s empowerment are even able to offset negative effects of certification on dietary quality.
These results suggest that women’s empowerment is indeed a mediator on the pathway between certification and dietary quality and may partially explain positive nutrition effects of certification. We expect that these mediation effects mainly stem from women’s increased decision-making power and involvement in agricultural production and increased control over income which we observe in our sample. These results suggest that if certification schemes are carefully designed and implemented with country context in mind they can contribute to improved nutrition among small holder farmers, and improved gender equity.
Keywords: Sustainability standards, Nutrition, Women’s empowerment, Coffee, Rwanda