Overall, the findings of this study show that access to efficient, cost-effective processing infrastructure has the potential to contribute to women’s economic empowerment and access to, and consumption of nutritious diet. Access to processing infrastructure enables women to add value to their produce, earn income, support household expenditure, and enhance free movement, well-being and social recognition. The women in this study further expressed some sense of empowerment through their perceived positive changes, which they connected to their involvement as processors or access to processing infrastructure. These positive changes included: more respect given by husbands and the community for their wageearning status; increased household spending on education, foods, education, healthcare, acquisition of assets, and other household investments. However, the study findings also point to diverse challenges which women face in their attempt to build their livelihoods in groundnut processing: limited availability of quality processing infrastructure, gender norms, and limited access to social resources (eg. cost of transport, power supply).
