Gender and Productivity Differentials in Smallholder Groundnut Farming in Malawi: Accounting for Technology Differences

The gender gap in agricultural productivity has been of ongoing interest to development policy and we revisit the subject in the context of groundnut, an important food and cash legume in Sub Saharan Africa. We address production technology differences between male and female managers of groundnut plots and examine the implications for the male–female difference in productivity. Using cross-sectional data, two recent stochastic meta-frontier (SMF) techniques are coupled with statistical matching to examine gender-related technology, managerial, single and total factor productivity (TFP) gaps. The results reveal different production technologies in use by male and female producers, and technology (6–7 per cent points) and managerial (3–5 per cent points) differentials, which translate into significant male advantages in land productivity (6.2 per cent) and TFP (15.3 per cent). A heterogeneity analysis provides valuable insights: Technology, managerial and TFP gaps, which favour male managers, decrease with age, years of schooling, exposure to extension, and use of hired labour and improved seeds; but increase with total cultivated area. Closing the productivity gap will require expanding female production possibilities through use of improved inputs and practices and enhancing managerial skill and know-how through extension.