ABSTRACT
This chapter provides empirical support for the hypothesis that the government gives preference to men in agricultural services. It explores why discrimination occurs by examining a number of factors that could possibly account for it. Women are perhaps perceived as traditional, conservative, poverty-stricken, and unwilling or unable to adopt innovations that are promoted by the agricultural administration. Women engage in extensive associational activity including church groups, mutual-aid societies, and communal agricultural groups for planting, weeding, and harvesting crops. Agricultural services in Kenya are of several types. The most common is the visit by an agricultural instructor to farmers, all of whom are equally entitled to such visits. Agricultural instructors or local administrators generally invite farmers to these training sessions, though it is possible for farmers to request training. The ability to acquire a loan is a crucial indicator in any assessment of agricultural services.
