Gender Dimension of Fruit and Vegetable Value Chains in Ethiopia: Review

Abstract

In Ethiopia, fruit and vegetable production, productivity, and marketability increased over time. The fruit and vegetable subsector has a vital role in human nutrition and health, farm income generation, poverty alleviation, and foreign currency earnings through export and foreign direct investment.  This paper aims to review the current literature on gendered engagement in and returns from fruit and vegetable value chains. A review of this literature identified three key areas of interest for gender relations in fruit and vegetable value chains such as: gender division of labor, distribution of benefits, access and gender and social norms. The review shows that lack of clear categories of data on employment and income in fruit and vegetable value chains, most of the papers report on gender differences, few of them use gender analyses to explain the observed differences and the impact of gender inequality in fruit and vegetable value chain performance. There is limited literature and evidence.  Based on the reviewed results, the researcher calls for placing gender at the core rather than the periphery of fruit and vegetable value chain studies and suggests a conceptual framework for incorporating gender analysis in future value chain studies in the fruit and vegetable sector.