Gender differentials in primary processing and market participation by mopane worm harvesters in Zimbabwe: insights from the COVID-19 pandemic phase

Musara, Joseph P.; Bahta, Yonas T.; Mapuranga, Rangarirai; Musiniwa, Fredy; Abu Hatab, Assem; Owusu-Sekyere, Enoch

doi:10.1186/s40066-024-00487-z

Agriculture & Food Security

Table 2 Description of variables included in the models and descriptive statistics

From: Gender differentials in primary processing and market participation by mopane worm harvesters in Zimbabwe: insights from the COVID-19 pandemic phase

Variable	Description	Total sample mean	Female (N = 255) mean	Male (N = 138) mean	Mean difference-test
Location dummies
Gwaranyemba	Dummy variable if harvester is from Gwaranyemba ward (0 = no, 1 = yes)	0.226	24.30	21.98	1.57**
Silonga	Dummy variable if the harvester is from Silonga ward (0 = no, 1 = yes)	0.218	31.78	17.95	2.36*
Insindi	Dummy variable if the harvester is from Insindi ward (0 = no, 1 = yes)	0.187	13.08	20.88	− 2.10*
Coleen bawn	Dummy variable if the harvester is from Coleen Bawn ward (0 = no, 1 = yes)	0.221	20.56	22.71	− 1.00**
Dwala	Dummy variable if the harvester is from Dwala ward (0 = no, 1 = yes)	0.147	10.28	16.48	− 2.34*
Social factors
Age	Age of the harvester in years	44.72	43.41	45.23	– 1.10**
Dependency	Dependency ratio of the harvester’s household	33.26	33.42	33.19	0.11
Education	Harvester’s years in formal education	8.23	7.81	8.39	− 1.26**
Economic factors
Price	The weighted average market price in US$/standardized tin	33.37	32.89	33.6	− 0.45
Payment	Time taken to be paid after a sale in hours	11.29	11.61	11.18	0.18
Buyers	The approximate average number of reliable buyers in the markets	3.34	3.13	3.42	− 0.88
Income	Natural logarithm of total household income from other sources in US$/month	5.74	5.73	5.74	− 0.20
Transport	Harvester perceives transport as affecting market participation (0 = no, 1 = yes)	0.74	0.79	0.72	1.46**
Institutional factors
Associations	Number of associations to which the harvester subscribes	1.70	1.52	1.77	− 1.85**
Extension	Number of extension contacts	5.27	5.59	5.15	1.30**
Training	Whether the harvester received training in the past 12 months (0 = no, 1 = yes)	0.34	0.36	0.34	0.51
Storage	Whether the harvester has storage facilities (0 = inadequate, 1 = adequate)	0.71	0.78	0.69	1.69**
Distance	Average travel time to the market in minutes	73.65	70.98	74.69	− 0.38
Information	Whether the harvester has access to market information (0 = no, 1 = yes)	0.72	0.72	0.71	0.10
Policy factors
Harvesting	Whether the harvester has reliable access to harvesting sites (0 = no, 1 = yes)	0.58	0.56	0.59	− 0.51
Policy	Harvester perceives absent harvesting policy affects marketing (0 = no, 1 = yes)	0.43	0.39	0.45	− 1.09**

Source: Authors’ computation
^*; ** and *** indicate p values significant at 1%, 5% and 10% levels, respectively; t test was used for difference tests

Back to article page

ISSN: 2048-7010

Contact us

General enquiries: journalsubmissions@springernature.com