Ghanian Women’s Rights as Farmers and Extension Service Clients More Recognised by Men and Women, Study Shows
23 July 2024, Ghana: Many more men and women are now recognising women’s rights as individual farmers and agricultural extension service clients in Ghana – rather than as secondary household members, according to new research published by CABI.
Following interventions by the CABI-led global PlantwisePlus programme, both men and women in the eight districts/municipalities across Bono and Afaho regions now also recognise women’s land ownership and property rights.
The findings of the research, which focused on the results of a social and behaviour change campaign, are outlined in the Study Brief ‘Changes in women’s access to extension services in Ghana: the impact of a behaviour change campaign.’
The Study Brief demonstrates positive changes in attitudes and societal norms around women’s roles in agricultural work.
It also examined solutions to social-cultural issues and traditions that affect women farmers and prevent them from fully taking part in and benefiting from agricultural services.
Equitable access to agricultural extension and advice
A focal area of the CABI-led global PlantwisePlus programme is supporting equitable access to agricultural extension and advice. Goal 3 of CABI’s Medium-Term Strategy seeks to reduce inequality through better opportunities for rural women and youth.
PlantwisePlus has been implementing social and behaviour communication approaches to change attitudes as part of a campaign that facilitates dialogue around embedded perceptions of rural women, their roles, and their capabilities.
Around 200,000 people were reached through the activities in 2023 where the campaign sought to address some of the remaining barriers and challenges faced by women farmers.
While women farmers make up 52% of the agricultural workforce in Ghana, only 15 to 30% of them are reached by agricultural extension programmes.
A participatory radio series run on four stations featured local experts talking about key gender topics identified as barriers to equity by local stakeholders which included issues such as encouraging the use of agricultural technologies, land ownership and the sharing of decision-making roles on the farm.
Farmers were able to call in to ask questions of agricultural extension experts, respond to questions posed through voting mechanisms – called Uliza Interactive, record voice messages to share their opinions on air, all at no cost to themselves.
These approaches increase the audience engagement with the programmes and the topics being discussed and are part of Farm Radio International’s methodology.
The campaign involved working in partnership with the Directorate of Women in Agriculture Development (WIAD), the Directorate of Agricultural Extension Services (DAES), the regional and district Department of Agriculture in Bono and Ahafo regions, and Farm Radio International.
As part of the work, 769 agricultural extension agents were trained to better consider and incorporate women into their extension activities. The agents are consulting women farmers to see how and when to conduct extension activities, considering the women’s schedules, mobility constraints, and literacy levels.
The research shows that farms managed by women are usually less productive than those run by men. It has been found that this is often related to gender-based differences in access to productive resources, input products and advisory services.
Reducing the gender productivity gap
Improving women’s access to agriculture advisory services will contribute towards reducing this gender productivity gap. Increasing agricultural outputs from farms managed by women can raise total agricultural output in developing countries and reduce the number of hungry people in the world.
It will also help to increase income controlled by women, enabling them to have a stronger bargaining position over economic decisions regarding consumption, investment and production.
When women have more influence over economic decisions, their families allocate more income to food, health, education and children’s nutrition, improving wellbeing and human capital formation.
Further work needed in tackling some societal and cultural norms
Dr Hannah Nyamekye, International Development Consultant, Tamsin Davis, Strategic Lead – Development Communication, CABI, and Solomon Duah, Communications Specialist, West Africa, CABI, and Birgitta Oppong-Mensah – Scientist – Agricultural Advisory Services, CABI, said further work is needed in tackling some societal and cultural norms.
These include those that continue to hinder women’s access in agricultural activities, including ‘taboo days’ which are is a ‘set aside’ day each week whereby, traditionally, people are not allowed to work.
Dr Nyamekye said, “Currently, many Ghanaian women farmers (as in other countries) face significant challenges in accessing services to support and elevate their farming activities.
“There are several barriers to change faced by women in Ghana. For instance, existing gender extension services are designed with a male bias, and do not consider factors that hinder women from participating – such as poor literacy levels, low mobile phone ownership, and childcare duties.”
She added that extension service providers also do not target women farmers: they believe the male household head will pass on necessary information, and that women lack the organisational skills required to succeed in farming.
“Even when women farmers can access extension services, gender-based social norms and beliefs that stem from these – including that women should act as their husband’s ‘supporter’ rather than be farmers in their own right – prevent them from engaging,” Dr Nyamekye said.
Community dialogues (durbars) to open discussion
The campaign also used community dialogues (durbars) to open discussion around these issues within rural communities. Twenty communities in Ghana’s two key agrarian regions held the community durbars on gender barriers.
Each meeting brought together all relevant stakeholders and actors, including community chiefs, opinion leaders, local government officials, representatives of DOAs, extension agents and farmer groups.
Here, they discussed and sought solutions to known socio-cultural issues and traditions that affect women farmers and prevent them from fully participating in and benefiting from agricultural services.
To assess the impact of the campaign overall, focus group discussions were held in the communities which were covered by the broadcasts and/or the community dialogues.
Following this, key informant interviews were held with members of the regional and district agricultural department that had supported the community dialogues, extension staff and Benjamin Fiafor, Farm Radio International’s Senior Country Representative (Ghana & Nigeria).
Tamsin Davis said, “Changes in men and women’s attitudes and behaviours regarding women’s role in farming and accessing agricultural extension services
are already visible.”
“Women farmers report feeling happy and empowered following the implementation of initiatives, while male farmers note the interventions as being relevant and timely.”
However, the authors of the study say that while some barriers to women’s access to extension services have been removed others have not and that sustained efforts are required to deliver long-lasting shifts in attitudes and behaviours.
Lessons learnt and recommendations
Lessons learnt from the assessment have already been used to shape recommendations for the ongoing and planned implementation of the social and behaviour change activities relating to gender by CABI and national stakeholders.
These include encouraging men and women farmers and community leaders to consistently practice what they have learned and discuss success stories during farmer meetings and in household discussions.
Other recommendations centre on making the radio broadcasts more inclusive and interactive through text and WhatsApp messages. Funding should also be provided, the Study Brief authors say, so that the radio programming can be scaled to other districts and communities, and the series extended in length to exceed 12 episodes.
In response to this CABI is planning to integrate the programmes on gender topics within pre-existing Green Leaf Radio Magazine programmes on 16 radio stations across 4 regions during 2024, to scale the work further.
The study followed a Gender and Rural Advisory Services Assessment (GRAST) report conducted in January 2022 to review the current gender gaps in agriculture and the degrees in which they are present.
Among the recommendations made by the report was the need to develop interventions that can shift individual attitudes and societal norms that restrict women from accessing agricultural extension services and partaking in farming activities.
The work accompanies efforts to engage decision-makers at the national level in meaningful discourse to push for effective implementation of gender mainstreaming strategies and targets in agricultural policies as part of a comprehensive social and behaviour change approach.
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