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.
Hudson, Heather (author / McLaren School of Business, University of San Francisco)
Format:
reaearch report
Publication Date:
1995-06
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 147 Document Number: C23539
Notes:
97 p., The purpose of this report is to set the stage for a re-examination of investment priorities and strategies in rural telecommunications by synthesizing what we know about the role of telecommunications in the development process. The report provides an overview of the evidence to date of the economic and social benefits of rural telecommunications. The report reviews key studies and identifies theory and research findings that are particularly relevant to rural regions of developing countries. It also includes research conducted in industrialized countries that appears particularly relevant for rural regions of the developing world.
23 pages., via online journal., Unequal reach and access to information is an issue that affects women involved in agricultural activities around the world. Recent initiatives to address gender unequal access to agricultural information have been clumsy, overlooking participatory approaches that focus on transformative change. This study uses Pakistani rural advisory services to compare farmers' and extension workers’ perceptions of access to agricultural information, to identify culturally acceptable gender-responsive schemes.
4 pages., Via online journal., Raising the productivity of smallholders
is a necessary condition for increasing incomes and
improving livelihoods among the rural poor in most
developing countries. This increased productivity is
essential to both household food security and to
agriculture-based growth and poverty reduction in the larger
economy. Smallholder productivity is limited by a variety of
constraints including poor soils, unpredictable rainfall,
and imperfect markets, as well as lack of access to
productive resources, financial services, or infrastructure.
Information and communication technologies (ICT) are also
vitally important to commercial and large-scale agriculture,
and to agriculture-related services and infrastructure such
as weather monitoring and irrigation. This note focuses on
the sometimes less-obvious importance of ICT in improving
the information, communication, transaction, and networking
elements of smallholder agriculture in developing countries.
14 pages., his paper evaluates the effect of the Rural Capacity Building Project (RCBP),
which aimed at promoting growth by strengthening the agricultural service systems
in Ethiopia, and by making them more responsive to smallholders’ needs, in particular women farmers. We examine the gender-differentiated impact of the RCBP
using panel data on 1,485 geographically dispersed households in project and control
kebeles. We find that women farmers’ access and satisfaction with extension services
increased significantly immediately after the start of the project, but that effect did
not last into the medium term. The project led to an increase in the adoption of high-
value crop farming, area of land cultivated, and economic participation of household
members, benefiting male- and female-headed households equally. Results point to
the positive impact of incorporating women’s needs and constraints in the design of
the agricultural extension system. However, the project was not able to reduce the
preexisting gender gap in agricultural outcomes.
