14 pages., via online journal,, Effective agricultural extension is key to improving productivity, increasing farmers’ access to information, and promoting more diverse sets of crops and improved methods of cultivation. In India, however, the coverage of agricultural extension workers and the relevance of extension advice is poor. We investigate whether a women's self‐help group (SHG) platform could be an effective way of improving access to information, women's empowerment in agriculture, agricultural practices, and production diversity. We use cross‐sectional data on close to 1,000 women from five states in India and employ nearest‐neighbor matching models to match SHG and non‐SHG women along a range of observed characteristics. We find that participation in an SHG increases women's access to information and their participation in some agricultural decisions, but has limited impact on agricultural practices or outcomes, possibly due to financial constraints, social norms, and women's domestic responsibilities. SHGs need to go beyond provision of information to changing the dynamics around women's participation in agriculture to effectively translate knowledge into practice.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 196 Document Number: D08091
Notes:
John L. Woods Collection, Fourteen charts produced by Development Training and Communication Planning, UNDP Asia and the Pacific Programme, Bangkok, Thailand.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: C14546
Notes:
Pages 150-162 in Neville Jayaweera and Sarath Amunagama (eds.), Rethinking development communication. Asia Mass Communication Research and Information Centre, Singapore.
