III. COUNTRY SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

The Consultation also identified country specific recommendations as relevant to gender roles in peanut sector for food security. This section presents these recommendations.

3.1 Bangladesh

1. Develop gender-sensitive guidelines on better ways to address the technological needs and priorities of rural women on the role of local/indigenous knowledge systems in technology development and policy concerning the latter.
2. Upgrade and broaden the information base on different aspects of women's role in agriculture.
3. Undertake studies of female enrollment in agricultural education institutions in order to develop country strategies to increase female student enrollment and the number of female extension workers.
4. Develop learning resource materials to train young rural women to improve peanut technology skills for technology transfer.
5. Develop gender-sensitive training and educational materials for policy-makers and planners to improve household food and nutrition security among women-headed households.

3.2 Cambodia

1. Recognition of importance of peanut as food and cash crop through agricultural and rural development policies to support production.
2. Peanut cultivation should be included in the agenda of agricultural support services, with specific focus on institutions providing education, training and other services.
3. Relevant government agencies must be geared toward an understanding of the role of peanut cultivation in food security.
4. Research should be directed towards linking peanut cultivation needs to overall agricultural production.
5. The socio-economic dynamics/gender roles in the peanut production system should be understood.
6. An understanding of the role women play in peanut planting should be a precondition for the development of strategies intended to improve food security.
7. Gender analysis should be part of policy formulation and programme planning in agricultural sector. Gender awareness and sensitization training should be made available to planners and policy makers.
8. Gender sensitive-research findings should be incorporated into extension programmes to ensure that rural women's needs related to production are being addressed.
9. Rural women's needs should be observed in decision-making on agricultural research including peanut enterprises.
10. Collaboration between researchers, extensionist, and women's groups needs to be strengthened.
11. It should be recognized that women managed production and controlled income from agricultural production including peanuts and its marketing which might have an impact on poverty reduction.
12. Promotion of income opportunities for women that would lead to intensification of peanut cultivation and adoption of innovations such as improved stoves, that save both labour and natural resources.
13. It should be recognized that agro-processing and related micro-enterprises have an important role in increasing income from primary peanut activities. These activities, if organized as separate income-generation activities, rather than as an extension of homework, would enable women to pay full attention to technical requirements and to upgrading of their own skills.
14. Efforts should be made to improve the process of listening and learning from female farmers and to facilitate the representation of women in agricultural policy making bodies.
15. It is important to recognize that peanut cultivation is typically a family activity and thus it is necessary to learn about gender roles by region and in association with the activities of other family members.

3.3 China PR

1. Provide women with enough input support such as finance and technology to help them develop family-based peanut production and processing.
2. Organize and implement courses on peanut technology management and trade for women and at the same time provide assistance to solve problems faced in peanut production.
3. Encourage women to set up peanut processing enterprises and strengthen their capabilities to become economically independent.

3.4 India

1. Incorporate female farmers' perceptions into peanut technology development.
2. Examine the workload associated with production practices.
3. Develop policies to address issues on women's access to input and output markets in the peanut sector.
4. Carry out need assessment of women in groundnut production by engaging women in on-farm research.
5. Involve women and men in participatory breeding and varietal selection in the peanut sector.

6. The following are suggested as potential areas of research where gender dimensions can be more specifically addressed:

   • In-situ conservation, seed networks, participatory seed collection and evaluation.
   • Labor-cost effective integrated pest and disease management practices/strategies.

   • Resource management practices - tillage, sowing operations, irrigation, soil nutrient management, weed management, and harvest and post-harvest processing.

7. Strengthen user perspectives into adaptive research within the formal research sector and apply participatory techniques in adaptive research and technology transfer.
8. Organize special field days for women farmers, providing them with a forum for feedback to researchers on women's needs, with access to specialized knowledge and information, not always available through male-oriented extension systems.
9. In field research apply a balanced mix of gender-sensitive participatory methods, and other techniques of data collection.
10. Beyond the specific research topic of gender analysis, continue to include women into consultative processes and information dissemination mechanisms.
11. Develop pragmatic approaches and realistic indicators and robust tools for monitoring the gender component of research programmes.

3.5 Lao PDR

1. Target farm households for a main training program related to peanut sector, as a priority means for development of quality and productivity improvement in Lao PDR by the following measures:

   • collection, evaluation and dissemination of market information.
   • assistance in the planning and scheduling of production.
   • securing a market for producers.
   • advice on the best practical post-harvest practice.
   • coordination of inputs and credit delivery.

   • provision of transport, storage, and post-harvest facilities.

2. As a follow-up to the gender research so far completed, initiate field programs for gender integration.

3.6 Nepal

1. Women should be provided with additional productive assets and technical information along with assistance on improving quality and quantity of the product and access to research and appropriate technology.
2. Provision of training, education and extension services to women entrepreneurs in various fields of intervention in order to enhance their production capacity and ensure product safety.
3. Develop gender-sensitive training and educational materials to support improvement of household food and nutrition security.
4. Develop self-sustainability and empowerment of women through income generating activities through the practice of equal rights in access to resources.
5. Create awareness on the importance of the peanut crop for household food security and family nutrition.
6. Encourage women's participation in decision-making processes in the adoption of peanut technology.
7. Encourage utilization of peanut by-products as a resource for derivative products in an integrated way to generate income among women for female self-reliance.

3.7 Philippines

1. Provide opportunities for training to improve women's technical capabilities for peanut cultivation and enterprise development.
2. Integrate activities related to production, processing and consumption related to make peanut production profitable.
3. Develop post-harvest technology and labor-saving equipment to lessen the burden of work on women peanut producers and processors.
4. Link women peanut producers/processors with practicing scientists in institutions involved in research and development associated with agricultural science and technology to ensure that they will have direct access to research results.
5. Women should have access to opportunities for capability building, training and participation in research.
6. Strengthen the entrepreneurial capacities of women through the provision of project development and management training.
7. Improve support by ensuring equitable opportunity and access to credit (including the simplification of requirements).
8. Farmers should use the government agencies' support services on production, processing and post-harvest handling of peanuts, investment counseling and market information and/or market matching.
9. Farmers should receive information on policies, issues and developments in relation to the peanut industry. The information should be as relevant to legislation and executive orders passed to support, funding and other forms of assistance provided to production, cultivation, processing and marketing.
10. Establish well-functioning cooperatives of women producers/processors of peanuts to overcome constraints stemming from marketing intermediaries.

3.8 Sri Lanka

1. Conduct simple surveys to identify the respective roles of women and men in groundnut production (from seed selection to processing marketable value-added products) in randomly selected districts.
2. Sensitize the relevant policy makers by using survey findings. Together with other agents develop a program to increase ground-nut production and introduce new groundnut products.
3. Develop a follow-up mechanism at the initial stages of the program directed at policy makers.
4. Study the groundnut market (market channels of collection and distribution and linkages, controls by various interests and the strengths and weaknesses of the marketing system).
5. Observe the groundnut consumption patterns of a cross section of the society (e.g. income, ethnic groups, age).

3.9 Thailand

Most rural women in peanut production do not know about advances in peanut technology, they commonly use only traditional practices. A programme should be developed to support rural women and to cover of them in areas of peanut production and processing such as by:

• training programmes.
• development of tools and equipment appropriate to women.
• support income-generating projects.

3.10 Viet Nam

1. Transfer appropriate post-harvest technology, especially of peanut dryers to reduce mold and prevent generation of mycotoxin in general and aflatoxin in particular. This will help farmers to enhance product quality for domestic consumption and for export and reduce post-harvest losses.
2. Introduce methods of using shellers to improve farmers' productivity.
3. Encourage the consumption of peanuts in daily diet of the peanut farmers' families to improve their nutrition as a support to Vietnamese government's nutrition activity program 1996–2000.

3.11 Recommendations for Collaborating Organizations

1. TCDC opportunities for research on gender roles in peanut sector should be identified.
2. USAID Peanut CRSP-FAO RAP-KAPI-KU collaboration in this area should be strengthened.
3. USAID CRSP should support additional activities in Asia with a focus on gender roles in the peanut sector both in research and technology transfer.
4. Expand the CRSP network to include the participants of the consultation.