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Citation |
- Permanent Link:
- https://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00083269/00001
Material Information
- Title:
- Using Male Research And Extension Personnel To Target Women Farmers
- Creator:
- Spring, Anita
- Place of Publication:
- East Lansing, Michigan
- Publisher:
- Women in International Development, Michigan State University
- Publication Date:
- September 1987
- Language:
- English
- Physical Description:
- 33 p. : ill. ; 28 cm.
Subjects
- Subjects / Keywords:
- Women farmers -- Malawi ( lcsh )
Agricultural extension workers -- Malawi ( lcsh ) Agricultural systems -- Research ( lcsh ) Women in development ( fast )
- Genre:
- bibliography ( marcgt )
- Spatial Coverage:
- Africa -- Malawi
Notes
- Abstract:
- This working paper, by Anita Spring, addresses how male extensionists should proceed in targeting women farmers for more agricultural training. The Farming Systems Research and Extension (FSR/E) scientists are mentioned to not focus on the whole farming system, and so their recommendations, training, and workshops are not appropriate for all types of farmers especially small farmers. This paper introduces the notion that technology transfer is hindered if intrahousehold dynamics are not taken into account. The paper suggests that the technologies can be ill-suited or not fully adopted and equipment is inadequately misunderstood by the farmers. Not every farmer can be put into the same category or package. What one farmer may need will be different than what some other farmers will require for their farming needs.
It is mentioned there needs to be specific methodologies to understand intrahousehold variables. The methods described in this paper are the pre-diagnostic stage, the diagnostic stage, the technical design stage, and the testing stage. The paper continues to explain each of these stages. The main objective of this paper is to instill that both men and women agricultural researchers and extensionists both have to become involved and to target farmers of each gender. The paper continues to mention a case study in Malawi describing how women in Malawi are neglect4ed in extension services in the practice of FSR/E.
The next section is "Characteristics of Extension Services". This chapter explains how it is the male extensionists who work with the farming systems researchers to locate, interview, select trial cooperators, and target disseminators. A statistic reporting that only 19% of all worldwide extensionists are women is elaborated on in this chapter. Male personnel holds a variety of positions, including decision-making ones that affect policies and programs. Male workers are given tasks of offering solid agricultural services through training and visits, but the women are recommended to form small women's groups to generate income.
Another case study, the Integrated Cereals Project in Nepal, studied women's contribution to agriculture in different areas and queried how women in those areas could be reached. In their questioning, it was found that women did more of the agricultural work about 79% and about a third of the decision-making. It was reported that men only thought that women did some of the work but the women extensionists agreed with the numbers the women farmers reported. Women farmers reported that they would usually seek out women extension workers but male farmers did not normally interact with female extensionists.
The next section in the paper is the Case Study from Malawi. Anita Spring directed an agricultural development project from 1981 to 1983 funded by the office of Women in Development. This section describes how much time women spent on agricultural duties and household duties. Women were reported to work on a variety of crops including maize, rice, cassava, and tobacco. Women were also involved in livestock and all aspects of farming the land.
The WIADP summarized the results from the national survey (NSSA) and determined that men received more services that women and that wives often received more service than female households. The WIADP prepared detailed guide sheets on the types of households and families that needed to be considered to be surveyed. The WIADP conducted trials and included female farmers to illustrate the problems in obtaining women cooperators. The next paragraphs examine women in high and low-resource households.
Some examples are given for credit to provide these groups of farmers. Other trials with women are also described in this section. Additional recommendations for improving the delivery of extension services to women were added in a circular. "Prior to the circular, some male extensionists did include women farmers in their programs, but in general, the inclusion of women was neither consistent nor reflective of women's contributions and needs by area".
The next section of this paper is the Conclusions. The Conclusion section covers recommendations to the FSR/E. Some the recommendations include surveying a diversity of farmers in terms of resources, household and family types, and to consider people at different points of the life cycle in the diagnostic stage. Also, strict instructions need to be given to the extortionists in their surveys to low and high resource farmers and both women categories, household, and wives. Additional information is given in the paper to discuss the design of the trials and how to monitor the trials.
The next pages of the paper include Appexies. The first Appendix is the circular mentioned previously, provided by the Ministry of Agriculture called "Reaching Female Farmers Thorugh Male Extension Workers". This circular includes images, methods, and credit programmes information. Pages 22-30 includes tables and figures referenced in the paper.
- Biographical:
- Dr. Anita Spring has devoted her life to research in topics such as international agricultural development; food security; entrepreneurship and African business; women/gender in international development; environment and resource management since the 1970s. She has conducted research and produced many publications at several prestigious universities including Cornell University, San Francisco State University, and recently the University of Florida. She is currently a professor emeritus in the Department of Anthropology, and director of the Sub-Saharan Africa Business Environment Report (SABER) Project at the University of Florida.
- Creation/Production Credits:
- Working paper (Michigan State University. Office of Women in International Development) #144
- Creation/Production Credits:
- A similar version of this article appeared in Poats, Schmink, and Spring (1987).
Record Information
- Source Institution:
- University of Florida
- Rights Management:
- All applicable rights reserved by the source institution and holding location.
- Resource Identifier:
- 17403088 ( OCLC )
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