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• When it comes to agroforestry, the role of the head of the household in decision

making at household level has not been documented well.

• Increasingly, the traditional assumption that the senior male of the household functions

as the household head and primary decision maker is being questioned.

• Increased understanding of household level decision making in relation to tree planting

activities is needed to improve the effectiveness of agroforestry policies and projects.

Introduction

Methods

Results (continued)

• The density of trees planted was significantly associated with the decision maker on

tree planting within the household (P = 0.0062).

• The density of trees planted was lower for decision making by the household head

alone compared to decision making by the spouse and joint decision making (Figure 2).

• The best fit model showed that the density of planted trees was significantly

associated with kinship (P < 0.0001) and the decision maker on tree management

(P = 0.04).

• The density of trees planted was higher for matrilineal households than for patrilineal

households, and was highest for households where decisions on tree management were

made jointly by the household head and their spouse (Figure 3).

• Gender of the household head was not significantly associated with the density of

planted trees in any of our models.

Conclusions

• The findings of this study demonstrate that the assumption that the household head is

the sole decision maker is flawed and an oversimplification of reality.

• No clear pattern of household decision making emerged from our data on the various

agricultural activities, which indicates that decision making is a complex process and

cannot be reduced to a simple model.

• Gender of the household head and kinship affected who was the main decision maker

within the household, and this in turn affected the density of trees planted by the

household.

• Tree planting and management seem to be considered as mainly the responsibility of

men in our study areas; however, it was also clear that joint decision makers with

regards to tree planting and management were more successful in terms of the

numbers of trees planted on their land.

Acknowledgements and Contact

• This study was funded by Irish Aid and would not have been possible without supervision

and assistance of the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) and University College Dublin

(UCD).

• Contact: Seline Meijer: s.meijer@cgiar.org or

seline.meijer@ucdconnect.ie

• A household survey was administered to 135

married household heads in two rural districts in

Malawi:

1. The northern district Mzimba, with mostly

patrilineal kinship, where households

reside in the village of the husband and

the husband holds the land titles.

2. The southern district Chiradzulu, with

mostly matrilineal kinship, where

households reside in the village of the

wife and the wife holds the land titles.

• Multinomial regression analyses were used to test

the association of gender and kinship with who was

the household decision maker and negative

binomial regression analyses were used to see if the

density of planted trees was associated with the

decision maker on tree planting and tree

management, kinship and gender.

1. World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) Southern Africa Regional Programme, PO Box 30798, Lilongwe, Malawi 2. World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) Vietnam, No. 8, Lot 13A, Trung Hoa Street, Yen Hoa Ward, Cau Giay District, Hanoi, Vietnam

3. UCD Forestry, Agriculture & Food Science Centre, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland

Seline S. Meijer1,3, Delia Catacutan2, Gudeta W. Sileshi1 & Maarten Nieuwenhuis3

The role of gender in household decision making on tree planting: A case study from Malawi

Figure 1. Map of study areas in Malawi

Results

• The head of the household was most often the main decision maker for the various

agricultural activities, while joint decision making by the husband and wife was also

common (Table 1).

• Tree planting and tree management are different from other agricultural activities in

that the percentage of cases where the household head decides independently was

higher, and consequently joint decision making was lower.

• Decisions in relation to tree planting and management were made more often by the

household head in patrilineal households, whereas joint decision making was more

common in matrilineal households. In addition, decision making on tree planting was

done more often by the household head in male-headed households than in female-

headed households, where these decisions were more likely to be made jointly by the

husband and wife together.

Photo 1. Agroforestry farmer in Malawi

Table 1. Household decision making patterns for various agricultural activities

Figure 2. The density of planted trees for household

decision maker on tree planting and kinship Figure 3. The density of planted trees for household

decision maker on tree management and kinship

Photo 2. Household survey in Malawi

Activities Head (%) Spouse (%) Joint (%) N

Crops to plant 50.0 10.4 39.6 134

Sowing 50.4 6.7 43.0 135

Weeding 47.4 7.5 45.1 135

Fertilizer 38.8 14.2 47.0 134

Trees to plant 66.7 7.4 25.9 134

Tree management 62.7 8.2 29.1 133

Animals to rear 51.9 12.6 35.6 135

Selling farm products 40.0 17.0 43.0 135

Credit 45.2 18.5 36.3 135

Participation in meetings 54.1 0.7 45.2 135

Firewood collection 27.4 61.5 11.1 135

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

Head Spouse Joint

Matrilineal

Patrilineal

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

Head Spouse Joint

Matrilineal

Patrilineal

• This study aims to (i) identify which household

members are the decision maker(s) for

various agricultural activities including tree

planting; and (ii) evaluate the outcomes of

household decision making by the head, the

spouse, or joint decision making, in terms of

actual trees planted by farming households in two

rural districts in Malawi.

• Research and extension efforts should not

merely target the household head but should

take into consideration that decision making in

relation to farming and tree planting is

multidimensional and site-specific.

• Assumptions on headship and gender roles

need to be locally checked and validated in

order for agroforestry research, policies and

projects to be relevant and effective.