This document discusses integrating gender and nutrition within agricultural extension services. It outlines challenges such as biases towards staple crops, reaching women farmers, and integrating nutrition. The importance of addressing gender gaps is explained, as women farmers face disadvantages in access to resources and services. Gender-equitable extension is proposed to treat male and female farmers equally. Linking agriculture and nutrition is complex, as extension agents have limited nutrition knowledge and competing priorities, but entry points exist through promoting homestead food production and women's empowerment.

1. Agricultural Extension: Pathway to
Empowerment and Food Security
Photo:DanQuinn,HorticultureInnovationLab
University of Illinois at
Urbana Champaign
Andrea Bohn
Katy Heinz
Cortney Eisenmann
Maria Jones

2. 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.

3. What is INGENAES?
Integrating
Gender and
Nutrition
within Agricultural
Extension
Services
IN
GE
N
A
E
S

5. 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

6. Importance of Gender in Food Security
Women
43%
Men
57%
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

7. 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

8. 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

9. Gender Equality vs. Gender Equity
EQUALITY EQUITY

10. Gender Equality vs. Gender Equity
EQUALITY EQUITYTRANSFORMATIVE
“Out of the Box”

11. 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)

12. Linking Nutrition to Agriculture. Role of Extension?
Conceptual Pathways between Nutrition and Agriculture

13. 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

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

16. Questions and Discussion!

17. 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

18. 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