This study examines whether agroecological farming practices, when employed by highly vulnerable households in sub-Saharan Africa, can improve food security and dietary diversity. The research involved a four-year study with 425 smallholder households, selected purposively based on high levels of food insecurity and/or positive HIV status. The households carried out agroecological experiments of their own choosing over a four-year period.
In this paper, the authors describe the adaptation and validation of a project-level WEAI (or pro-WEAI) that agricultural development projects can use to identify key areas of women’s (and men’s) disempowerment, design appropriate strategies to address identified deficiencies, and monitor project outcomes related to women’s empowerment. The 12 pro-WEAI indicators are mapped to three domains: intrinsic agency (power within), instrumental agency (power to), and collective agency (power with). A gender parity index compares the empowerment scores of men and women in the same household.
Smallholder producers in sub-Saharan Africa are often unable integrate into markets and access high-value opportunities by effectively participating in global chains for high-value fresh produce. Using data from a survey of large avocado farmers in Kenya, this study examines the determinants and impacts of smallholder-producer participation in avocado export markets on labor inputs, farm yields, sales prices, and incomes, using a switching regression framework to control for selection effects
The purpose of this report is to present the findings from a study on the Economic Empowerment of Women through Resilient Agriculture Supply Chains: A Geospatial and temporal Analysis in Southwestern Bangladesh.
The Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) is a direct, multi-dimensional measure of women's access to resources and decision-making in various domains of agriculture. However, several challenges characterize its use: adaptation of questionnaires to local agricultural contexts, modifications to index construction once underlying activities and adequacy thresholds are modified, and sensitivity analysis. In this paper, the authors address such challenges based on our experience of adapting and using the WEAI across 3600 households in India.
This study explores the role of gender-based decision-making in the adoption of improved maize varieties. The primary data were collected in 2018 from 560 farm households in Dawuro Zone, Ethiopia, and were comparatively analyzed across gender categories of households: male decision-making, female decision-making and joint decision-making, using a double-hurdle model. The results show that the intensity of improved maize varieties adopted on plots managed by male, female, and joint decision-making households are significantly different.
The mergers of some of the world's largest agribusinesses have led to speculation about what sort of global citizens the new companies will become and whether vulnerable rural populations, especially smallholder men and women farmers, will be negatively impacted. As innovation leaders in the agriculture industry, these new companies will be expected to play key roles in finding solutions for major agricultural challenges facing the world today.
El presente artículo presenta el estudio de caso desarrollado con la Asociación Agropecuaria de Mujeres Emprendedoras del Municipio de Sotaquirá (ASOAMMES), en el que se propuso y se desarrolló una estrategia de diseño participativo, con el objetivo de generar valor agregado y ventajas competitivas en las actividades productivas que desempeñan las 40 mujeres que conforman dicha asociación.
La organización de las mujeres indígenas y rurales en grupos productivos y microempresas pretende ser un mecanismo hacia el empoderamiento, el combate a la pobreza y la equidad de género, siendo los tres Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible de la Agenda 2030 para el Desarrollo de las Naciones Unidas. En México, dichos objetivos se abordan desde el Plan Nacional de Desarrollo (2013-2018), donde además se establece como estrategia transversal la perspectiva de género para ser aplicada en el diseño e implementación de políticas, programas y presupuestos sectoriales.
This policy brief shows how digital tools can help to ensure that public money for agricul-tural extension is spent wisely. Governments often fund offices, training centers, and the salaries of extension officers, but cannot eas-ily review the impacts of these expenditures. This is because the activities of extension agents are not monitored systematically. Ex-ension services rarely generate quantitative data on the effects of their work.