Agricultural Extension: Pathway to Empowerment and Food Security

Phot

o: D

an Q

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, Hor

ticul

ture

Inno

vatio

n La

b

University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign

Andrea BohnKaty Heinz

Cortney EisenmannMaria Jones

Outline for Today

• Introduction

• What is INGENAES?

• Why Extension?– Current Challenges in Extension

• Importance of Gender in Food Security– Gender Gaps in Agriculture

– Gender Equitable Extension

• Linking Nutrition to Agriculture– Challenges to Nutrition Integration in Extension

– Entry Points for Nutrition Integration

• Conclusion

Young woman preparing potatoes.© K. Colverson. Nepal, 12/2015.

What is INGENAES?

Integrating

Gender and

Nutrition

within Agricultural

Extension

Services

IN

GE

N

A

E

S

Current Challenges in Extension

• Environmental degradation and climate change

• Bias towards staple production and new seed varieties and practices

• Capacity constraints at all levels

• Unstable policy frameworks

• Government budgets

• Reaching and engaging women farmers

• Integrating nutrition within services

Importance of Gender in Food Security

Women

43%

Men57%

Agriculture Labor Force in Developing Countries

FAO, 2011 http://www.fao.org/gender/Infographic/en/

• If women and men farmers were given equal access to resources and services, agricultural output in developing countries could increase by 2.5-4%

• Which could reduce the number of undernourished people in the world by 100-150 million!

YIELD GAP BETWEEN MALE AND FEMALE FARMERS

Access to land • Ownership and tenure

Access to credit• Disparity in the percentage of female-headed households who access

credit compared to their male-led counterparts

Access to inputs and technologies• Reason behind differences in yields between men and women farmers

Access to extension services • Cultural attitudes, discrimination and a lack of recognition of women’s

roles in in food production

Access to markets• Infrastructure and cultural constraints

Autonomy and agency in decision-making• Women have a traditionally limited role

FAO, 2011; Manfre et al., 2013)

Reducing gendered constraints and impacts can increase the productivity, profitability and nutritional dimension of crop and livestock systems, and thereby improve food security and nutrition outcomes.

Major Gender Gaps in Agriculture

Gender Relations Framework

Adapted from Verhart et al, 2015

Division of Labor

Norms and Values

Access to / control over

resources and services

Intra-household decision making

Consider Women’s and Men’s

perspective

Gender Equality vs. Gender Equity

EQUALITY EQUITY

Gender Equality vs. Gender Equity

EQUALITY EQUITYTRANSFORMATIVE “Out of the Box”

Manfre, C. et al (2013)

Gender-Equitable Extension

See and treat both men and women farmers as clients

Evaluate the impact of extension services on reducing gender disparities in agricultural productivity

Adapt gender-responsive techniques and methods to the local context

Account for time and mobility constraints & adapt to different levels of education and literacy

Use Farmer groups to deliver extension services

Increase the proportion of women extension officers

Equip all extension officers with the knowledge and skills to address men and women farmers equitably

Strengthen marginalized people’s (e.g. women) right to land (ownership, use)

Linking Nutrition to Agriculture. Role of Extension?

Conceptual Pathways between Nutrition and Agriculture

Challenges to Nutrition Integration in Extension

Competing demands, priorities for staff• Production/income?• Food & nutrition security,

family well-being?• Other “extras”:

conservation ag, market linkages…

Extension personnel limited nutrition knowledge• What do staff need to

know? • What should be left to

health frontline workers?

General capacity limitations• Poor extension service

coverage• Teaching approach to

training/knowledge

Varying Nutrition Messages• Hesitation to adopt

mixed messages

Which instrument are diverse ag extension service providers playing, when, and what's the tune?

Conclusion

Questions and Discussion!

Resources GFRAS (2014): The Integration of Nutrition within Extension and Advisory Services (EAS) A Synthesis of Experiences, Lessons, and Recommendations. The full report

is available here.

Helen Keller International. 2014. Nurturing Connections. www.hki.org/our-impact/stories/nurturing-connectionsbangladesh#.VZTJh6b4ijw

IFPRI. 2012. Gender, Agriculture and Assets Project (GAAP) toolkit. Washington DC: IFPRI. Available at: http://gaap.ifpri.info/files/2010/12/GAAP_Toolkit_Update_ FINAL.pdf

IFPRI. 2013. Gender differences in access to extension services and agricultural productivity. Available at: www.ifpri.org/publication/genderdifferences-access-extension-services-and-agricultural-productivity

INGENAES Website: http://ingenaes.illinois.edu

Manfre, C., Rubin, D., Allen, A., Summerfield, G., Colverson, K., & Akeredolu, M. (2013). Reducing the gender gap in agricultural extension and advisory services: How to find the best fit for men and women farmers. MEAS Discussion Paper 2. http://dev.meas.illinois.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Manfre-et-al-2013-Gender-and-Extension-MEAS-Brief.pdf

Meinzen-Dick, R., Quisumbing, A., Behrman, J., BiermayrJenzano, P., Wilde, V., Noordeloos, M., Ragasa, C., and Beintema, N. 2011. Engendering agricultural research, development, and extension. Washington DC, USA. http://ebrary.ifpri.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15738coll2/id/126799

Ragasa, C., Berhane, G., Tadesse, F., & Seyoum Taffesse, A. (2013). Gender differences in access to extension services and agricultural productivity. Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension, 19(5), 437-468. http://www.ifpri.org/publication/gender-differences-access-extension-services-and-agricultural-productivity

Reaching Rural Women website: www.reachingruralwomen.org

SPRING (2014): Improving Nutrition through Agriculture Technical Brief Series www.spring-nutrition.org/publications/series/improving-nutrition-through-agriculture-technical-brief-series . The conceptual frameworks of the pathways and principles for improving nutrition through agriculture are described in Brief 1: Understanding and Applying Primary Pathways and Principles. Each subsequent brief explores a different route between agriculture and nutrition: food production, income generation, and women’s empowerment.

Verhart, Noortjje, A. van den Wijngaart,N. Dhamankar, K. Danielsen (2015): Bringing agriculture and nutrition together using a gender lens. Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) and SNV Netherlands Development Organisation, Wageningen, The Netherlands. www.fsnnetwork.org/bringing-agriculture-and-nutrition-together-using-gender-lens

World Fish. 2013. www.aas.cgiar.org/content/gender-transformative-approach-crucial-successful-agricultural-development

Disclaimer and License

This presentation was made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development, USAID. The contents are the responsibility of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the

United States Government.

All work by INGENAES is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License