Social Sciences and Humanities Open (Jan 2024)
Profile of women in African agriculture and access to extension services
Abstract
The role of women in Agricultural enterprises cannot be overemphasized. Their involvement is important not only because of their contributions in marketing, food processing, cropping and animal husbandry, but also because of their decision-making abilities. Therefore, this paper attempts to profile women and their access to extension services in the African agricultural sector by examining the degree of their participation in agricultural activities. A literature review was conducted to investigate the participation of women farmers in the agricultural labour force. Women's specific roles, their economic status and how women agricultural extension practitioners can contribute to enhance women-farmers’ profile, welfare, and livelihoods were explored. The review confirmed that agriculture is a dominant force in providing employment and daily means of livelihood for many rural women across African countries. Despite several obstacles, including poor customary tenure, poor allocation of resources, limited or no access to agricultural extension services and unfavourable policy and implementation that often limit their productivity, women farmers still play a lead role in the continent's agricultural sector – but their potential is far from being realized. A parallel finding was that most agricultural extension practitioners in many developing countries are men, and their services are often oriented and channelled to favour men farmers, thereby depriving women farmers of the essential agricultural extension services needed to realize their potential. The study suggested that there is a link between the current limited progress of women farmers and the scarcity of women extension practitioners. This led to the recommendation that measures should be taken to increase the number of women serving as agricultural extension practitioners with the express intent of reaching women farmers, and concurrently to ensure that they are afforded the requisite budgets and operational status to be effective.
