PRODUCTIVITY AND PROFITABILITY OF RICE PRODUCERS OF KIRIMBI MARSHLAND IN NYAMASHEKE DISTRICT, RWANDA: A GENDER WISE ANALYSIS

The topic of gender in agriculture sector has had an increasing interest for many researchers. Authors of this paper assess the productivity and profitability levels of rice producers of Kirimbi marchland in Nyamasheke district using an indicative gender approach. To achieve the objective, data were collected from 333 farmers whereas 198 were male farmers while 135 were female farmers using an interview schedule. This study employs a mixed approach of research viz qualitative and quantitative to analyze the study. Descriptive statistics method was used to describe the data with continuous variables while inferential statistics method was used to ascertain whether there is difference significant between productivity levels of male and female farmers, profitability levels of male and female farmers and benefit cost ratio levels of male and female farmers in Kirimbi marshland. Findings of the study revealed that land productivity for female farmers is high compared to that of males though there is a meager difference between productivity levels. With regards to benefit cost ratio, it is high for male farmers than that of female farmers. It was also found that rice farm business for female farmers was not profitable as the BCR equals to 0.45 therefore female farmers were advised to revisit their expenditures patterns because it was observed that the higher amount of variable costs led to the rice business to be a non-profitable business. For both categories, the average cost of field protection was the highest among others. It is also seen through the differences in total costs where the total cost for males was found to be 609,841Rwf and 979,073Rwf for females which indicates that females spent more money on various agricultural practices and inputs than male. This might lead to loss and affected negatively the BCR of female farmers found to be less than one. Article visualizations: