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by  World Bank Group

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bli Operationalg uidelineso n howt o providec ost-effectivea gricul-
Pu tural extension services to women farmnersin Sub-Saharan
Africa.
The PoCicyR, esearch, nd ExtemalA ffai,, Complex dirtnbuLesP REW oiking Papersto disseminuteth e findingso f wotk in pmgiess
and toencoeagthe exchangeo f idea anong Bank suIT nd all othersi weted in devdopmenti ssues. esep apes carry thenames
oft ie aWh=, rect canly their views. ands hoaudb e useda nd csteda ccordingly.I hc frndisp intespreutina. andc onclusionsa m the
auts' oaw lihey shoaldn ot be attuributetod the World Bank.i u Baitd of Directn, is managenmenotr. a ny of its memberc untics.
Pollcy,R e»urch, and EsWmalA Ha Ira
Womelnn D evelopmenl
This paper - a product of the Women in Development Division, Population and Human Resources
Department - is part of a larger effort in PRE to develop sector-specifie guidelines on cost-effective
intervendons to enhance the productivity and well-being of women. These guidelines will reflect thc
best available operational experience. Copies of this paper are available free from the World Bank,
1818 H Street NW, Washington DC 20433. Please contact Mila ViUar, room S9-133, extension
33752 (54 pages).
Women are responsible for at least 70 percent of To ensure more effective delivery of the
food staple production in Africa. They are also extension message to women, there should be a
important in food processing and marketing, concerted effort to increase the number of
cash cropping, and animal husbandry. They are female extension agents. Until more female
both laborers and decisionmakers - and as extension agents are trained, female home
more men migrate from the rural areas for work, economists and "animatrices" should be re-
an increasingly large number of women are trained and redeployed, and female agents pres-
managing farns on a day-to-day basis. ently in the extension system should be used as
initial contacts with women farmers to familiar-
Women farmers operate under greater ize them with the extension system. It is also
constraints than men, constraints of which there very important that male extension agents be
is too little awareness. Women have less access trained to work more effectively with women
to information, technology, land, inputs, mar- farmers.
kets, and credit. As primary caretakers of
children, they have less time and mobility- The extension system should identify ways
and in Africa they are often illiterate. They need to extend services to women to overcome
effective agricultural extension services, but constraints on their time and mobility and their
these services are still geared toward male limited education. Suggested approaches
farmers, both in content and delivery method. include mobile training courses and wider use of
such mass media as radio and video cassettes.
Extension systems should be modified- More generally, there should be a substantial
with women farmers helping design changes- increase in the number of female contact fanncrs
to better reach women farmners.T he extension to better reflect their significant role in the
message should be more tailored to the needs of sector. The use of women's contact groups is a
women farmers. To this end, the information particularly cost-effective way of providing
and technology needs of women farmers should extension. Monitoring and evaluation should
be identified more effectively, and the links with include gender-disagreggated indicators to better
agricultural research institutes strengthened so assess the impact of extension on both men and
that they address women's activities and con- women farniers.
straints. Tools and machines appropriate for
women farmers should also be designed and
made more easily available.
The PRE Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work under way in the Bank's Policy, Research. and Extemal
Affairs Complex. An objective of the series is to get thcsc ftndings out quickly, even if presentations are lcss than fully
polished. The ftndings, interpretations. and corclusions in these papers do not necessarily represent official Bank policy.
Produced at thc PRE Dissemination Center
ACKNOWIEDGEMENTS
This paper is the product of almost two years' research into
the problems facing women farmers in Africa and the innovativew ays
being tried throughoutA frica to develop agriculturale xtension services
to help them more effectively. The UNDP - Regional Programif or Africa
financed this work, which forms an integralp art of ongoing research:
Raising the Productivityo f Women Farmers in Africa being managed by
PHRWD and funded by the UNDP Regional Program.
The authors would like to gratefullya cknowledget he
contributionsm ade by many experts in the agriculturale xtension field,
both within and outside the World Bank. We would particularlyl ike to
thank Mr. Benor for his support, and helpful comments on earlier drafts
from Charles Ameur, Michael Baxter, Judy Bryson, Josette Murphy, Edgardo
Quisumbing,A nthony Pritcharda nd William Rivera. We would like to give
special thanks to Daphne Spurling for her significantc ontributionst o
both the drafting and the substanceo f the report. Thanks also to
Barbara Herz, Chief, PHRWD, for her guidance and encouragement.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Executive Suimmar.y . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i
CHAPTER 1: The Need for Guidelineso n Agricultural
Extension for Women Farmers:W hy
Women Farmers Need Help ...... . . . . . . . . . . . ..
1. Extension'sI mportance in Agriculture. . .. . . . . .
2. Women's Role in Agriculturei n
Sub SaharanA frica ... . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 2
3. ConstraintsW omen Farmers Face:
Barriers to Access ... . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 5
CHAPTER 2: Modifying Extension to Reach Women Farmers:
InformationN eeds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1. UnderstandingW omen Farmers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2. Collecting Informationo n
Women Farmers ..... . . . ...... . . . . . . . 17
3. Monitoring and EvaluatingE xtension
Programs for Women Farmers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
CFAPTER 3: How to Reach Women Farmers through
Extension: Transmittingo f the Message . . . . . . . . . . 23
1. AgriculturalS upport Systems
in Anglo and FrancophoneA frica . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2. Gender of the ExtensionA gent:
Does it matter? ..... . . ....... . . . . . . 24
3. Female ExtensionA gents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
4. Male ExtensionA gents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
5. Subject Matter Specialists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
6. Contact Farmers and Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
7. Women Farmers Access to Training . . . . . . . . . . . 35
CHAPTER 4: Improvingt he Link Between Extensiona nd Research . . . . . 38
1. DevelopingA Research Agenda Targeting
Women Farmers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
2. GeneratingT echnologiesf or Women Farmers . . . . . . . 42
References ............................. 48
Insert Boxes
1 T & V: Seven Underlying Principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2 Women's Time Use ..................... . . 9
3 Education and Farmer Productivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4 Cote d'Ivoire, Togo and Burkina Faso.
Income from The "Family Fields" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
5 Nigeria: Diagnosing of Gender Roles in
T & V ExtensionP roject. 20
6 PotentialC ontributionso f Home Economists . . . . . . . . . . 28
7 Technical Expertise for Rural Income Earning Activities . . . . 30
8 Economieso f Scale Using Groups .. 31
9 Research Agenda for Women Farmers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
10 Reducing Risk for Women Farmers Adopting Technologies. . . . . 42
IllustrativeC ase Boxes
Case 1 Malawi: Profile of a Women Farmer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2 Nigeria: Women Farmers in Imo State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3 Malawi: Women's AgriculturalW ork and Access to Extension . . . 5
4 Malawi: Vicious Cycle of Small-holderA griculture . . . . . . . 6
5 Cote d'Ivoire: Effect of Expanding
Cultivationo f Cocoa and Coffee .. 6
6 Gambia: Women's Technology and Productivity . . . . . . . . . . 7
7 Zimbabwe:M obilizing Credit for Rural Women . . . . . . . . . 8
8 Malawi: Women Farmer's Lower FertilizerU se. . . . . . . . . . 9
9 Cameroon: ExtensionA gents and Women Farmers . . . . . . . . . 11
10 Nigeria: ExtensionD irected to Men . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
11 Burkina Faso: Extension InformationB ypasses Women . . . . . . 12
12 Kenya: Efficiencyo f Female Versus Male Farmers . . . . . . . . 12
13 Nigeria: The InvisibleW omen ..... ........ .. . . 15
14 Botswana and Sierra Leone: The InvisibleW omen . . . . . . . . 15
15 Cameroon: Control Over Resources and Household Bargaining . . . 16
16 Malawi: Collectinga nd Using Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
17 Cameroon: InexpensiveS ingle Questionnaire . . . . . . . . . . 20
18 Zambia: Training and PostingW omen ExtensionA gents . . . . . . 25
19 Nigeria: Using Home Economistsf or AgriculturalE xtension . . . 26
20 Burkina Faso: Upgrading Female Outreach Workers . . . . . . . . 27
21 Malawi: Male Agents Resist IncludingW omen . . . . . . . . . . 28
22 Malawi and Burkina Faso: Women Only Versus Mixed-Sex
Farmers' Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
23 Kenya: Women Farmers' Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
24 Kenya: Selecting Contact Farmers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
25 Zambia: Women Farmers' Access to Training . . . . . . . . . . . 35
26 Nigeria: Rural Radio Ownership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
27 Television and Videos in FrancophoneC ountries . . . . . . . 36
28 Gambia: Low Cost, Low Input Technology Increases
Women's Income . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
29 Niger: Research to DiversifyF ood Crops Grown
by Women . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
1. Women are responsiblef or at least 70 percent of food staple
production in Africa (World Bank, 1989a). They are also important in other
agriculturala ctivities,i ncludingf ood processing and marketing, cash
cropping and animal husbandry. Women's involvementi s significantn ot only in
terms of their labor input, but also in terms of their decision-making
authority. In fact, as more men migrate to cities and other countries for
work, increasingn umbers of women are becoming heads of households, managing
farms on a day-to-day basis. To *-upportt heir extensivea nd multifaceted
roles in agriculturea nd to enable them to respond to market incentivesm ore
efficiently,w omen need effective agriculturale xtension services.
2. The evidence shows, however, that despite of a growing awareness of
the need to reach women farmers, agriculturale xtension services are generally
geared towards male farmers. This sometimesb y design, but more often by
default. Bias towards male farmers is evident in the delivery of extension,
which is generallyp rovided by male extension agents to men, on the assumption
that the extensionm essage will "tri-klea cross" to women. Unfortunately,t he
evidence clearly shows that it often doesn't. It is also evident in the
message itself, which tends to focus on the activitieso f male farmers rather
than the much wider range of agriculturala ctivitieso f women. Such an
approach ignores the unique workload, responsibilitiesa nd constraintso f
women farmers and results in a highly inefficientu se of resources, not to
mention sub-optimall evels of agriculturalp roduction.
3. This paper proposes a series of operationalg uidelines on how to
provide agriculturale xtension services in a cost-effectivew ay to women
farmers. All small-scalef armers, regardlesso f gender, face constraints,b ut
the focus here is on women farmers in order to foster a better understanding
of the particular gender-relatedb arriers confroi;.Lnwgo men and the strategies
needed to OvercOme them. Attention is concentratedo n Sub-SaharanA frica in
view of the crucial role of women in agriculturet hroughoutt he sub-continent.
Worldwide operationalg uidelines for agriculturale xtension for women farmers
are planned for later this year.
4. The recommendationsh ave been gleaned from the experienceso f
African governments,t he World Bank and other donors, and researchers.
Ongoing pilot programs have provided useful guidance about what can work to
integratew omen fully into the agriculturale xtensions ystem and what problems
are likely to emerge in differents ocioeconomice nvironments.T his is,
however, an ongoing process: it is a relativelyn ew field and much remains to
be learned. It will be especially importantt o test alternativea pproaches
over the next few years. This paper will then be revised to incorporaten ew
lessons of experience.
5. This paper is organizeda s follows: Chapter 1 addresses the question
of why wemen need hel -- the role women have in agriculture,e specially in
Africa, and the particular constraintst hey face in terms of access to
resourcesa nd information. Chapter 2 examines the informationn eeded to
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modify extension systems to better reach women farmers, to modify the foeus of
research to address women's activities and constraints,a nd to monitor and
evaluate programs. Ways to collect such data are also suggested. Chapter 3
deals with the transmissiono f the extensionm essage to women farmers -- the
role of the extension agents and the importare of gender, the use of home
economists and subject matter specialists,a nd the use of contact farmers and
groups. The final Chapter examines the formulationo f the message to be
delivered, and the linkage between extensiona nd agriculturalr esearch and
technology.
6. While the recommendationsa nd analysis contained in this paper are
relevant for different extension systems, particulara ttention is given to the
Training and Visit (T&V) system. Much of the World Bank's investment in
extensionh as been in the T&V system, originally in Asia and now in many
African countries. T&V extension is a management system which has the
flexibilityt o be adapted to local conditions. These guidelinesa re intended
for use by Bank operationals taff and government extensionp ersonnel. They
supplementa nd can be used in conjunctionw ith previous World Bank
publicationso n T&V extension.
Whv Women Farmers Need Help.
a) Women farmers operate under greaterc onstraints than men, and
hence need specialh elp. They have less access to information,
technology,l and, inputs and credit. Because women have primary
responsibilityf or the home and child care, they also have less
available time and mobility. While there is much regional variation,
women in rural Africa are frequently illiterate,e ngaged in subsistence
agriculturea nd unfamiliarw ith current technology,a nd are often
perceived by male extension agents as being "non-adopters".
b) There is a lack of awarenesso f these constraints. Most policy
makers, managers, agents and participantsi n agriculturals upport
servict ire males who are not directly affected by the problems and
needs oQ women farmers, and hence are not sufficientlya ware of them. A
number of initiativesa re needed to improve awareness.T hese include
collectingn ecessary information,r edesignings urveys and
questionnaires,i mprovings taff knowledge and understandingo f the
subject, and generatingf eedback on progress.
General Guidelines for Proiect Design.
(1) Situation specific
Given the wide variation in circumstancesb etween and within
countries, a single methodologyo r approach for improvinge xtension services
for women farmers is not appropriate. The approach chosen for any particular
situation must be suited to that specific situation, and should be based on
the socio-culturala nd religiousp recepts of the farming communitya nd on the
institutionalo rganizationa nd resourceso f the country.
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(2) Start small, focus on a few key issues. and follow with
sustainablea nd incrementale xpansionf rom a successfulb ase.
Large scale, quick-actingr emedies to the constraintso f women farmers
are not possible:
(a) financiala nd human resources are not normally available for
comprehensivec ountry-widei nitiatives.
(b) many improvements will depend on changing attitudes -- a process
which takes t,me, although it can be acceleratedt hrough deliberate
efforts involvingc ommunity leaders etc.
(c) certain changes in human capital take time. For example,
increasingt ha number of female exterinioang ents will require several
years until trainingh as been completed.
Consequently,i t is advisable to start small and expand gradually from
initiativesw hich have proved successful,a nd at a rate that the human and
financialr esources can absorb and sustain. This approach has been
successfullya dopted in Nigeria.
(3) Focus initiallyo n testing aDproaches in areas with the highest
ootential for success
For the most efficientu se of resources,b egin with areas or approaches
which have a high potential for success. These could, for instance, involve:
(a) women's groups as the point of contact for extension; (b) pilot projects
in villages with cooperativel eaders or districtsw ith supportivea gricultural
officers;o r (c) new approachesc entered round a popular radio program.
(4j Flexibilitv
Flexibilityo f design is essentialw hen choosing situation
specific initiatives. Flexibilityo ver time, with continualm onitoring and
evaluation,i s also important. Successful initiativess hould be expanded and
tried elsewhere, and unsuccessfulo nes dropped or modified. To make a start,
short-termm easures may be chosen with the intentiono f modifying later to
conform with long-term objectives.
(5) Participationo f women in desien and evaluation
The most important resource of all is the women farmers themselves.T hey
are the people most directly involvedb oth as those affected by the
constraintsa nd as recipientso f the extensiona dvice and support. They are
bert placed to define the problems, to suggest solutions and to evaluate
technologies. Ways should be found to involvew omen in designing and
evaluating the extension service, both in terms of developing an appropriate
message and delivering the message effectively.
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(6) Cooperationo f husbands and male leaders
Men at all levels of society can have a profound effect upon the success
of women's programs. At the village level, unless their support is enlisted
before embarking on women's agriculturalp rograms of any sort, men may resist
programs for their wives until they see direct benefits, as happened in
Malawi, for example. (Evans 1989) At senior government levels, the support of
departmentala nd regional managers is crucial to the effectivenesso f programs
for women farmers.
(7) An integratede xtension svstem for all farmers
While women farmers do need special help, this must be provided through
an integratede xtension system. It makes no sense to have a parallel,
separate system for women. This may take time, however, when there is a
separate cadre of home economists or animatrices,w ith its own administration.
A phased approach may then be needed. But all efforts should be directed to
developing an integratede xtension system which helps both men and women.
Suggestionsf or Proiect Components and Interventions
(1) Increase numbers of female extensiona gents.
Even in areas where there are no restrictionso n male/female contact,
communicationw ith female farmers is generallye nhanced when female extension
agents (EAs) are used. To increase the number of female EAs, however,
requires a long lead time and over the shorter term other ineansa re needed.
Suggested interventionsa re as follows:
-- Increase enrollment of girls in azriculturalc olleges:
- incr,ase enrollmento f girls in secondary schools. This is the
factor most highly associatedw ith female participationi n
intermediate agricultural trair ing;
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- set target growth rates for women students at agricultural
colleges;
- make boarding facilities available at agricultural colleges;
- remove irrelevante ntry requirements;
- provide common training curriculum for male and female
students.
* Redeploy female agents alreadvw orking with rural women. Female
agents already teaching rural women subjects closely allied to
agriculturec an provide a quickly tapped recruitments ource. Such