Lessons from Farming Households: Agricultural Decision Making and Shifting Social Norms for Women’s Economic Empowerment

Household-level agricultural decisions take place within the context of intramarital and familial relationships, the larger community, as well as social norms, beliefs, attitudes and livelihood constraints. These factors can encourage or hinder success in agricultural activities. This paper focuses on how decisions are made within agricultural households around production, including the adoption and uptake of new practices or inputs along with savings, credit and insurance products. The authors also share learnings and recommendations from MEDA's INNOVATE initiative on the differential impacts of non-traditional finance adoption on women and men within a household.