DISCUSSION No. 141 • FSN Forum digest No. 1300
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What role can agricultural extension and advisory services play in realizing gender equality and improved nutrition? |
until 09 July 2017 |
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Dear Members,
We are happy to share with you the first digest of the online discussion What role can agricultural extension and advisory services play in realizing gender equality and improved nutrition? and feedback from Edye Kuyper, one of the facilitators of this exchange.
The first contributions received provide interesting ideas on how Agricultural extension and advisory services (AEAS) can promote gender equality, nutrition and help achieve broader development goals. Also, participants are referring to examples of AEAS that have already successfully addressed these issues.
Furthermore, the discussion invites you to explore the challenges that may prevent AEAS from addressing gender inequalities and promoting nutrition.
Please refer to the FSN Forum webpage for further information and to read the full introduction to the topic in English, French or Spanish.
To take part, you can send your comments to
FSN-moderator@fao.org or post them online upon registration to the FSN Forum.
We look forward to keep receiving your input!
Your FSN Forum team |
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Edye Kuyper, co-facilitator of the discussion |
After a week’s activity, this discussion is generating very insightful contributions. I note several emergent themes: |
- AEAS are extremely influential in household agricultural decision making, and historically they have favored men and the agricultural activities that men are more likely to control.
- The ability to feed a growing population depends on the capacity of all farmers to improve their productivity, but women farmers typically have less access to information and market opportunities than men farmers.
- Promising strategies that engage both men and women exist. They require changes in the mindsets of organizational leadership, new approaches to AEAS training, and modifications to how they do their jobs.
One key to changing the way things are done is to engage young people in the process. Parents and educators know that once children are sensitized to an issue, they are hard to dissuade and can even influence the adults in their lives to change behaviors. Young agricultural professionals have a vital role to play in developing new ways of providing extension and advisory services, both now and in the future. Pre-service training that includes basic nutrition content will empower future AEAS staff to think more critically about how their services may impact household nutrition, and marketplace availability of nutritious foods.
I would also like to acknowledge the vital role that the country representative for Bangladesh of the Young Professionals for Agricultural Development (YPARD) played in catalysing this online discussion. As the discussion continues, we therefore encourage you to also share inputs that consider the role of youth. More specially, it would be interesting to hear your opinion on the constrains to empowering youth in AEAS, and your ideas on how youth can influence the nutrition and gender issues through AEAS in your own communities. |
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CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED
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Lola Gaparova, Mercy Corps and Intrahealth, Tajikistan
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In her first contribution, Lola stresses the major role women play in agriculture and that they bring to bear valuable knowledge regarding agricultural production. She points out that there is growing evidence that gender equality at the household and community level leads to better agricultural and development outcomes, including increases in farm productivity and improvements in family nutrition. However, AEAS should be made more effective to improve food and nutrition security, health, and to achieve a range of rural development goals.
Read the contribution
In her second contribution Lola refers to Tajikistan, where the women involved in agriculture are in need of resources, knowledge and services. In addition, she mentions broader challenges such as population growth, affecting agricultural production in general. New technologies could promote access to sufficient and healthy food, and integrating gender in AEAS will be crucial for fighting hunger and poverty.
Read the contribution |
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Dorine Odongo, International Livestock Research Institute, Kenya
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Dorine highlights that decision making power and the uptake of technologies are inextricably linked; identifying the entry-point to women's empowerment and ability to make and implement decisions is fundamental to realize improved nutrition. AEAS can be organized in such a way as to identify and work with local 'influencers' in the communities to devise engagement strategies that will tailor messages based on women's sphere of control. By employing engagement strategies that target and address women's interests and access to resources, AEAS can facilitate improved gender equality and improved nutrition.
Dorine also shares her article “Agricultural information access among smallholder farmers: comparative assessment of peri-urban and rural settings in Kenya”.
Read the contribution |
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Andrea Bohn, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
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Andrea argues that although extension practitioners may not explicitly refer to nutrition in their work, many of them address it in practice. She also shares the FAO/INGENAES report “Mainstreaming nutrition into agricultural extension: lessons learned from the integrated agriculture and poultry nutrition project in Bangladesh”.
Read the contribution |
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Jeston Lunda, Action Aid, Zambia
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Jeston stresses that AEAS have been male-dominated mainly due to patriarchal arrangements, and that knowledge has been perceived as a ‘preserve of men’. However, in practice, women are more involved in agriculture and responsible for providing the family with food. In order to improve nutrition, the underlying causes of gender inequality - which are mainly related to culture and tradition - should be addressed, and women should be empowered to understand their rights and to acquire higher levels of education.
Read the contribution |
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Azage Tegegne, International Livestock Research Institute, Ethiopia
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Azage introduces the LIVES project, which has been working with the national extension system in Ethiopia and for which gender equality and women’s empowerment are its core aspects. It implemente two participatory approaches, namely couples training and household coaching and mentoring, that proved effective in addressing gender constraints in reaching out to women both in male- and female-headed households. For instance, as a result of the project, women in male-headed households have come forward as leaders of value chain activities and have influenced their households to make changes based on new knowledge and skills gained. It is expected that the resulting empowerment of women would give them more recognition as equal partners in the community as well.
Read the contribution |
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Kennedy Oulu, In Depth Consulting Group Ltd, Tanzania
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Kennedy discusses two examples of nutrition- and agriculture-related programs in Tanzania, and on the basis of these examples, he draws some conclusions. Firstly, at the community level there are “women crops” and “men crops”, with "women crops" being more nutritious. These crops have also a higher potential to increase (women’s) incomes and nutrition, but only when policies include them in district/national agricultural development plans. Secondly, there are overlapping mandates on community nutrition interventions between government extension officers, CSOs and the private sector. Coordinating such initiatives through community champions helps in providing effective and holistic services. Thirdly, capacity building for extension workers to integrate food security, nutrition, sanitation and gender is needed.
Read the contribution |
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Muhammad Yaseen, University of Sargodha, Pakistan
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Muhammad stresses that AEAS can play a vital role in promoting gender equality and nutrition by providing capacity building programs to boost agricultural production and introducing nutritional campaigns in schools to promote healthy diets among boys and girls. AEAS by female staff can target women participation in agricultural activities and promote the production of fruit and vegetables at the household level to enhance the consumption of nutritious food in farming communities.
Read the contribution |
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Mure Agbonlahor, AUC, Burkina Faso
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According to Mure, the role of AEAS in realizing gender equality and improving nutrition cannot be overemphasized. However, she argues that the main focus should be on women’s empowerment rather than gender equality, and that capacity building opportunities in the context of extension services function can promote women’s empowerment. Capacity building models targeting female producers can raise productivity and increase income, and the production of high value horticultural crops is a powerful means to improve their resilience and nutrition.
Read the contribution |
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Mahesh Chander, Indian Veterinary Research Institute, India
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Mahesh elaborates on the situation in India, where the agricultural sector is formally dominated by men, while the big majority of the women working in agriculture remains ‘invisible’ and is mainly engaged in informal sub-sectors such as animal husbandry, fisheries and vegetable cultivation. However, women’s participation in training and capacity building programs is poor, and efforts are needed to adapt training methodologies to the different needs of female farmers. Gender-sensitive AEAS in India needs to be strengthened, especially considering the high correlation of education and training of mothers with child malnutrition.
Read the contribution |
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Botir Dosov, CAC-FRAS / CFS-HLPE, Uzbekistan
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Botir argues that regarding AEAS there is no one-size-fits-all approach, and that the methods and tools needed differ for each target audience, although in general, innovative methods should be used. He also argues that it is necessary to clearly define the final goals we pursue with AEAS activities. Furthermore, he refers to the “Small Business and Income Creation” program implemented in Kyrgyzstan, which is an example of gender-sensitive planning aimed at reducing poverty and improving employment opportunities, especially among youth and women.
Read the contribution |
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