Agriculture constitutes a significant amount of the Kenya’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). However, a major characteristic of Kenyan agriculture is the predominance of primary production with a high concentration of women in the sector. Peanut production for instance is widespread in western Kenya under rural crop production system; serving as a cover, subsistence and commercial crop. As a commercial crop, peanut has the potential of generating income for rural households and thus help in reducing poverty and improving livelihoods. Moreover, higher incomes can be obtained through value addition activities. Despite the known benefits from value addition, farmers produce and market peanuts with little or no processing. Using survey data from 310 randomly selected peanut producers from two divisions; Ndhiwa and Rongo; a Propensity Score Method (PSM) was used to determine the gendered effect of peanut value addition on household income. From the results, farmers were found to undertake only one form of value addition, shelling. Although they appreciated the higher profitability associated with other forms of value addition like processing, inadequate capital to purchase processing equipment was a major constraint. The PSM results suggest that value addition raises household per capita income by Kshs.88 per day. Male headed households recorded higher levels of income compared to female headed households. This indicates that potential exists in peanut value addition as a possibility to raise farmers’ household incomes. However, a diversity of value adding options should be promoted for adoption by farmers to sustainably improve peanut farmers’ livelihoods.

农业在肯尼亚的国内生产总值(国内生产总值)中占很大一部分。但是，肯尼亚农业的一个主要特点是初级生产占主导地位，妇女高度集中在该部门。例如，在农村作物生产体系下，花生生产在肯尼亚西部很普遍;用作遮蔽物、生存和经济作物。作为一种商业作物，花生具有为农村家庭创造收入的潜力，从而有助于减少贫困和改善生计。此外，通过增值活动可以获得更高的收入。尽管人们知道增加花生的价值会带来好处，但农民生产和销售花生时很少或根本没有进行加工。利用随机抽取的两个区310名花生生产者的调查数据;Ndhiwa Rongo;采用倾向评分法(PSM)确定花生增值对家庭收入的性别效应。从结果来看，农民只进行了一种形式的增值，即炮击。虽然他们认识到与加工等其他增值形式有关的较高利润，但购买加工设备的资金不足是一个主要限制因素。PSM的结果表明，价值增加每天增加家庭人均收入88先令。男性户主家庭的收入水平高于女性户主家庭。这表明花生增值作为提高农户家庭收入的一种可能性存在着潜力。但是，应该鼓励农民采用多种增值选择，以可持续地改善花生农民的生计。