ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sustain. Food Syst.
Sec. Land, Livelihoods and Food Security
Volume 9 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2025.1613678
Nexus of Women's Participation in Smallholder Financial Inclusion Programs and Economic Efficiency: Implications for Poverty Alleviation
Provisionally accepted
- 1Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China
- 2Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China
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Women in agriculture face significant barriers to land and resources, limiting their contributions to productivity and poverty alleviation. Despite extensive literature on women's roles in agriculture, the effect and mechanisms of women's participation (WP) in smallholder financial inclusion programs like Rural Savings and Credit Cooperatives (RUSACCOs) on economic efficiency (EE) in maize production remain underexplored. This study addresses this gap using data from 436 farm households in Zambia. Employing sample-selection stochastic cost frontier analysis, we find that WP in RUSACCOs significantly enhances EE. Notably, households without WP could improve cost efficiency by 21%, potentially reducing extreme poverty by 8%. Moreover, the findings identify agricultural informatization (AgI) as a compelling mediating mechanism: by empowering women and optimizing labor-land allocation, AgI amplifies the efficiency gains associated with WP. Overall, the study underscores the transformative potential of informal financial inclusion initiatives, such as RUSACCOs, that are gender-inclusive in advancing sustainable development goals (SDGs) 1 (poverty), 2 (hunger), and 5 (gender equality). Accordingly, policy implications emphasize the need for integrating smallholder financial inclusion programs with agricultural informatization support to strengthen the agricultural value chain and support broader socio-economic development goals among women farmers in rural settings.
Keywords: Gender Equality, Maize production, Agricultural informatization, Financial inclusion, economic efficiency commercial banks, microfinance institutions, cooperatives, and informal lenders-Zambia still
Received: 17 Apr 2025; Accepted: 31 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang and Mwalupaso. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Gershom Endelani Mwalupaso, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China
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