At present, there is an enormous opportunity for agricultural extension and advisory services (AEAS) for assuring gender equality, food and nutrition security, health and to achieve a range of rural development goals such as poverty reduction, preservation of the natural resource base, and so on which will ultimately contribute to achieving sustainable development goals through promotion of food security and nutrition. However, AEAS can help to ensure equal access to food and nutrition to both women and men and therefore, ensure gender equality. It can enable female farmers to understand, mitigate and adapt to new climate change challenges; support to manage their natural resources more effectively; assist them to make optimal use of their available resources to ensure access to food and income for their families. Rural extension services may also address rural woman's livelihood needs related to better nutrition, deal with the impacts of natural hazards, local institutional development (e.g. Cooperatives, women’s associations) and boosting job creation.
In addition, the extension services can help small women farm households, particularly among the rural poor women, improve their livelihoods by i) increasing their family based farm income, ii) achieving household food security and nutrition, iii) organizing into women leaded producer groups (i.e., empowerment), and iv) increasing their access to health services and education for their children.
Mr. Mohammad Mahbubur Rahman