Laban Gwako, chair of the Sociology and Anthropology department, has big plans for his $100,000.
On Aug. 23, Gwako received a $100,000 research grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for a two-year study on the effects of property rights security on agricultural output in Western Kenya.
Gwako has already hired several native Kenyans to begin research. In the summer of 2004, two Guilford College students will join these researchers.
Altogether the team will spend 18 months gathering data and six months writing it up. Researchers will collect data through oral and written surveys, random spot checks of farms, and participation in farming.
The project intends to examine control over the products of farming. In the patriarchal system that exists in Kenya, men own most of the land but women do most of the farm work. Gwako is studying whether these women produce more when they get to decide what to do with the fruits of their labor.
This study builds upon previous research Gwako did in Kenya on small-holder farms. This time he will be studying large-holder farms also.
“The broader impact [is] significant, because the new knowledge about the causes of African women-farmers’ productivity will be of great interest to planners concerned with economic development,” said one of the NSF grant reviewers.
Gwako believes this research will benefit Guilford College in a number of ways. “We teach our students theory. The more knowledge you have on the ground about theoretical operations of the real world, the more you speak about it with your students with an informed understanding,” said Gwako.
Gwako hopes the project will also bring greater understanding of research methods. Students who join Gwako benefit because they will learn how to analyze data.
“The part I found most interesting is the fact that students will have the opportunity to formulate their own thesis from collected data and the freedom to collect their own data,” said senior SOAN student Debbie Harris.
To be eligible to go to Kenya, Guilford students must be honor students working on a thesis. It would be preferable that they are SOAN majors, but it is open to students from all departments. How the students will be chosen has not been determined yet.