Turning Constraints into Opportunities: The Moderating Role of Gender Awareness in Smallholder Aquaculture Value Chains in Western Kenya

Although aquaculture is the world's fastest-growing food-producing sector, its value chain benefits remain unevenly distributed between men and women due to entrenched gender constraints. This study examined the moderating role of gender awareness on the relationship between gender constraints dimensions - fish farm characteristics, gender roles and relationships, and gender constraints - and opportunities within the aquaculture value chain in Western Kenya. A cross-sectional survey of 386 registered pond fish farmers was conducted in Kakamega, Kisii, and Homa Bay counties using systematic random sampling. Data were collected via structured questionnaires and analysed using descriptive statistics, bivariate correlations, and hierarchical moderated regression in IBM SPSS Version 25. All gender constraints dimensions correlated positively and significantly with opportunities (p < 0.01), with fish farm characteristics (r = 0.794) and gender constraints (r = 0.766) showing the strongest associations. The full regression model explained 77.8% of the variance in opportunities (R² = 0.778). Adding gender awareness as a moderator produced significant increments (Step 2: ΔR² = 0.028; Step 3: ΔR² = 0.031, both p < 0.001), confirming that gender awareness moderated the fish farm characteristics–opportunities (β = 0.142, p < 0.01) and gender constraints–opportunities (β = 0.118, p < 0.05) pathways, but not gender roles and relationships (β = 0.067, p = 0.124). Gender awareness strengthens farmers' capacity to convert resources into opportunities, yet cannot alone shift deep socio-cultural norms. Aquaculture extension in sub-Saharan Africa should integrate gender awareness education alongside structural interventions, supporting SDGs 2 and 5 and Kenya's Vision 2030.