Uganda’s National Agriculture and Advisory Services (NAADS) has made great contributions to the transformation of the country’s agricultural sector, yet after 21 years in existence, the organization continues to face difficulties in reaching women farmers.
A recent study in Uganda found gendered agricultural productivity gaps of 16% to 60% in favor of men (the wide range due to varying definitions of women’s control over plots). Many factors contribute to this gender gap, including women’s limited access to information, productive resources, and services. It has been particularly difficult to overcome the gendered information gap in smallholder farming communities: Traditional extension services are mostly provided by men—only 11% of Uganda’s extension agents are women—and directed at men, and women have limited access to mobile internet for digital extension (a gender gap of 48%).
Meanwhile, women also need more robust resilience capacities to respond to the growing threats of climate change, including extreme weather, droughts, and other problems. The additional demands placed on women inside and outside their homes further increase their vulnerability to agricultural shocks. And while women undertake large unpaid care workloads, they generally have less household decision-making power than men.
The IFPRI project Reaching Smallholder Women with Information Services and Resilience Strategies to Respond to Climate Change aims to increase women’s climate resilience capacities by overcoming their information constraints. The project—which operates in India, Kenya, and Uganda, and has reached close to 40,000 women—employs short videos showcasing women farmers applying climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices such as climate-smart pig and poultry management, soil and water management, and integrated pest management. Extension agents organize viewings for rural audiences.
Our recent research in Uganda offers a window into some of the benefits from the intervention; it shows that the video presentations boosted women’s knowledge of some CSA techniques—though gender gaps and other obstacles to adoption continue to pose challenges.
The CSA videos were rolled out in 2021 to 1443 female and 770 male smallholder farmers in six districts of Central Uganda. These included the wealthiest districts: Rakai, Nakasongola, and Mubende; and the poorest districts: Bukomansimbi, Kalungu, and Kiboga. Both qualitative and quantitative research studies were conducted to explore the mechanisms of how women farmers and extension workers perceive CSA videos and how this knowledge could be used to improve extension services, access to information for smallholder farmers, and adoption of CSA practices.
Existing gender gaps
Baseline data collected before the intervention suggest that lack of information was a key impediment to the uptake of climate-smart technology in Central Uganda, after lack of finance. More women (64%) reported information obstacles than men (60%). Men also had greater access to governmental and non-governmental information sources.
Moreover, Uganda’s extensive local radio and television networks do not reach women with climate resilience strategies as effectively as they do men. Radio is used by only 3% of women to access information on CSA, compared to 89% of men (Figure 1). Moreover, out of 20 CSA practices, women were more aware than men of only one, improved pig management. The gender gap in awareness ranged from 5%-28% depending on the practice. However, for those practices that women were aware of, adoption rates were similar (integrated pest management, improved poultry management) or higher (integrated soil fertility management and water harvesting). As such, access to information can help increase the adoption of key practices.
Figure 1
Project impacts
Our qualitative study suggests that farmers found the videos to be enjoyable, practical, and suitable to convey agricultural information. At baseline, women had lower knowledge of linkages between pig management and climate change compared to men; videos reduced this knowledge gap. The soil bunds video increased adoption of this practice by 13%, but only for men. This practice is highly labor intensive, which possibly made it difficult for women to translate knowledge into action. Videos improved women’s knowledge of integrated pest management by 4%; for men there was no knowledge impact and no significant impact on adoption. Thus, increased awareness and knowledge do not always translate into higher adoption due to constraints such as lack of finance, lack of suitability of land or crops for the practice, or lack of labor.
We found that videos centered on practices that a typical farmer can carry out without incurring many costs in terms of money and time were particularly effective. In addition, when CSA video technology learning approaches are integrated with other extension methods, smallholder farmers acquired knowledge more quickly than compared to conventional extension services. In response, at least one district decided to purchase video equipment to incorporate video usage into their extension programs.
Our qualitative research also revealed that people who viewed the videos learned as they watched, and that the videos’ visualization of climate smart concepts enabled rapid learning. Farmers also retained information learned from the videos.
This approach has a number of advantages. Those with access to smartphones can watch videos repeatedly. Videos are also cheaper to deliver than transporting farmers for a field day. However, videos don’t allow for two-way communication; additional discussion among farmers and extension officers following the showing was important.
Extension staff interviewed said they face a number of challenges to adopting the video approach. These included a lack of resources, inadequate farmer knowledge of contemporary agricultural technologies, farmer illiteracy, communication difficulties, and, among some elderly farmers, trouble seeing what’s on the screen. Other barriers included the lack of power/electricity, difficulties in transporting equipment, and a lack of technical knowledge needed to operate it. The cost of hiring video equipment (generator, speakers, fuel, transport, projection point, etc.), equipment malfunctions, and lack of appropriate venues were also noted.
In conclusion, use of videos in extension promotes farmer awareness, increases demand for technical support, facilitates farmer-to-farmer learning, and encourages farmers’ inventiveness and creativity. But videos on their own are not a panacea. They should be integrated with other extension strategies to support farmers’ learning processes.
James Billy Kasule is an Organic Agriculture and Food Systems MSc. student at the University of Hohenheim, Germany; Cosmas Alfred Butele is a Senior Entomologist, Apiculture at the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, Uganda. Both have been working with IFPRI on the project Reaching Smallholder Women with Information Services and Resilience Strategies to Respond to Climate Change. This post is based on research that is not yet peer-reviewed.
