Глобальный форум по продовольственной безопасности и питанию (Форум FSN)

In my country Venezuela there is much work to do specifically in this area of gender inequality is not doing anything, women spend long hours queuing to buy regulated food and have left the countryside many live in neighborhoods close to the city and never return...

I hope this situation changes soon because there is a lot of malnutrition especially in children and the elderly. Greetings from Venezuela

The success of the green revolution in India is the harmony among agricultural scientists, scientific technologies including seeds and planting materials, availability of inputs like water, nutrients and electrical energy, remunerative prices to farmers, farmer-producer co-operatives and self-help groups including formation of all women farm labour armies and lately mechanization and value addition through products development. KRISHI BHAVANS at each village act as information kiosks, Krishi Vigyan Kendras one each in all the districts of India, ATIC (Agricultural Technology Information Centres), ATMA (Agriculture Technology Management Agency) to manage scientific information flow to farmers serving farmers with knowledge and materials. There are all women neighbourhoods providing farm labour in all the farming activities. There are over 75 State Agricultural Universities with separate Division of Extension. Division of Social Sciences in over 65 ICAR-Carntral Institutes provides scientific manpower at graduate and post graduate levels. Media both visual and print have come forward to reach information to grass root level farmers. There are many Non Government Organizations working for the farmers. Despite all the above efforts there are reports of farmers suicide due to debt, crop failure and natural calamities. In a country like India where over 1250 million mouths have to be fed, agriculture production is in cross roads. Gender concerns in agriculture are being addressed with an open mind. Many universities have established "CENTRE FOR GENDER CONCERNS" for research and extension purposes.

I would like to share the following points.

Agricultural Extension and Advisory Services (AEAS) can play an important role in targeting gender equality and improved nutrition in the following manner:

• The women and men in the families need to be sensitized that the nutritional needs of girls are as important as boys, as in many communities girls are served less nutritious food compared to boys.
• Dietary diversity is to be stressed upon by providing a package of high quality seeds of easy to grow vegetables and fruit saplings. The children in the family need to be educated and motivated to nurture this patch of vegetables and fruit trees.
• The AEAS service providers need to have a dialogue with local schools to allocate a special session on nutrition education with emphasis on growing and eating locally available fruits and vegetables which are highly nutritious.

Regards and thanks,

Amtul Waris

Principal Scientist & Fulbright Fellow

ICAR-Indian Institute of Rice Research

Agricultural extension and advisory services play an important role in realizing gender quality and improved nutrition in developing and underdeveloped countries where the majority of population and especially women are uneducated. Proper training of females in these countries regarding balanced nutrition is very important. The health of women is very low because of 6 to 10 are even more births to children. However the women are unaware of their own and their new born kids. I think the training of women is most important than men in these areas.

Thanks

Amanullah

Agricultural extension and advisory services should be highly involved in realizing gender equity and improving nutrition. There are a lot of socio economic issues that could hinder utilization of nutrition education, an agricultural extension expert is needed for identification and appropriate solution. Agricultural extension personnel are trained in communication, psychology, human relation, administration and community development among others. They are equipped with the necessary communication strategies that could easily convince farm families because they understand the language of the farmers, In other words they are trained to interact with human beings.

Most agricultural intervention programmes spelt out gender equity in their programmes and want it implemented as such without a nutrition package, though nutrition education is often mentioned and researched into but supporting improved nutrition directly is not a common issue.

Challenges: Most agricultural institution are not really including improving the nutrition of farm families in their activities due to focus on mandates, improving productivity through transfer of technologies. Result of most nutrition research are on-shelf due to inadequate funding of research. Inadequate knowledge of necessary tools and collaboration between health and agricultural institution. Possible hijack of extension activities by non-professionals by playing down the role and strength of extension personnel. Rather than collaborating to achieve success, extension are often seen as threat. Non-involvement of AEAS in project where their expertise is needed especially in gender sensitive programmes is another challenge.

I think GFRAS should assist in blowing the trumpet on the underutilized capacity of AEAS. Capacity building programmes for AEAS and consciously including them in food security and nutrition programmes. 

Agricultural extension and advisory services (AEAS) are a good technique to inform and teach the farmers on the new technologies. AEAS bring information from a farmer to another. And then, the farmers could have good information on improved agricultural technologies and food security. AEAS are also supposed to make their best to contact separately female farmers and male farmers with specific information, if necessary. Say, AEAS are interesting means to build regularly the capacities of all the farmers, both men and women. 

English version below

Каждая RAS организация, внедряя апробированные, также ноу-хау технологии по выращиванию сельскохозяйственных культур, ведении животноводства в домохозяйствах вносят определенный вклад в улучшении доступа к питанию и касаясь косвенно или непосредственно в обеспечении гендерного равенства и улучшение питания. Страны Центральной Азии и Южного Кавказа, например Кыргызстан, обладая благоприятными природно-климатическими условиями, имеют огромный потенциал для обеспечения питания для населения. Кроме того, богатый исторический опыт стран в аграрном секторе, который переплетается с социальными и культурными аспектами, существующими задачами социально-экономического развития, обозначает, что СКУ должны также принимать во внимание гендерные аспекты в сельской местности. Услуги по распостранению знаний и сельские консультационные мероприятия должны широко предлагать и распротрянять технологии и практики, которые одинаково доступны как для мужчин и женщин. Наша организация “Bio Service” Public Foundation - Общественный фонд, развивает и продвигает органическое земледелие, которая очень важна для здорового питания в нынешних условиях. Наши услуги и деятельность ориентированы как на мужчин и женщин. Я считаю, что необходимо дальше развивать гендерные аспекты и аспекты питания в RAS, развивая сотрудничество между организациями, странами и регионами. В этом отношении Рабочая Группа по вопросам питания GFRAS может играть роль фасилитатора и координатора сотрудничества в этих вопросах.

В 2015 году ИФОАМ запускает проект «Питание в Горных Агроэкосистемах» среди горных стран Перу, Эфиопия, Пакистан, Непал, Кыргызстан. Данный проект в Кыргызстане реализовывается при координации Общественного фонда «Bio Service» в консорциуме с Федерацией Органического Движения "Bio-KG" (на национальном уровне) и СКС Жалал-Абад (на областном уровне) с помощью сельских консультантов. В рамках проекта реализовывается 26 микро вмешательств, чувствительных к питанию в Кыргызстане и эти микро проекты объединены в 7 кластеров. Для обмена знаниями, опытами и получения ответа от разных экспертов, участников существует платформа https://maan.ifoam.bio. Для получения подробной информации Вы сможете посетить данную платформу.

English version

Each RAS organization introducing proven, also now how technologies for cultivating crops, managing livestock in households, contributes to improving access to food and indirectly or directly in promoting gender equality and improving nutrition. The countries of Central Asia and the South Caucasus, for example, Kyrgyzstan, having favorable natural and climatic conditions, have a huge potential for providing food for the population. In addition, the rich historical experience of countries in the agricultural sector, which is intertwined with social and cultural aspects, the current tasks of socio-economic development, means that the RASs should also take into account gender aspects in rural areas. Knowledge dissemination services and rural consulting activities should widely offer and expand technologies and practices that are equally accessible to both men and women. Our organization "Bio Service" Public Foundation is a Public Foundation that develops and promotes organic farming, which is very important for healthy nutrition in the current conditions. Our services and activities are focused on both men and women. I believe that it is necessary to further develop gender aspects and aspects of nutrition in the RAS, developing cooperation between organizations, countries and regions. In this regard, the GFRAS Working Group on Nutrition can play the role of facilitator and coordinator of cooperation in these matters.

In 2015, IFOAM launched the project "Nutrition in Mountain Agroecosystems" among the mountain countries of Peru, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Nepal, Kyrgyzstan. This project in Kyrgyzstan is being implemented with the coordination of the Public Foundation "Bio Service" in a consortium with the Federation of Organic Movement "Bio-KG" (at national level) and RAS Jalal-Abad (at the province level) with the help of consultants. Totally, 26 nutrition sensitive micro-interventions implemented within the project in Kyrgyzstan and these micro projects are grouped into 7 clusters. To share knowledge, experiences and receive a response from different experts, participants have a platform https://maan.ifoam.bio . For more information, you can visit this platform.

Agricultural extension and advisory services (AEAS) are important in developing the capacity of families to improve upon practices to enhance their livelihood. It is important to assist service providers in their various communities to provide efficient service delivery. One key constraint hindering the empowering of youth in AEAS is the lack of necessary logistics for service delivery. Youth in AEAs need logistics such as adequate means of transport (motorcycles, car) to access communities for the provision of extension services. 

There is the need to build the capacity of youth in AEAS on indigenous plants knowledge that are rich in nutrient in various communities. This approach is been adopted by the Women in Agricultural Development (WIAD) of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Ghana. Agricultural extension agents are educated on the planting of available leafy vegetables that the family can easily cultivate and use in the preparation of their diets. 

Capacity building of youth in AEAS is required on gender issues and innovative ways to address them. Most AEAs are not abreast with the dynamics of gender issues in the various communities in which they work. This is because the development of new approach and methodologies will require the in depth knowledge of the current gender situation in the communities.   

There is also the need for various agencies of government tackling nutrition in both women and children collaborate for effective delivery and monitoring of impact. For instance in Ghana, WIAD under the Ministry of Food and Agriculture needs to work closely with the Maternal Health Unit of the Ghana Health service that carry out public education for pregnant women and nursing mothers. These agencies need to work together and share approaches that are working to provide the right nutrition for the family. 

This sound like an interesting forum, but I have some concerns. First I always get concerned when project suggest expanding government services. My basic definition of developing country, and the common denominator between them, is a financially suppressed economy in which consumer prices are only a fraction of those in developed countries, but wages are suppressed to 1/12th a developing countries. The result is more than 80% of income has to be spent on food. Since taxes have to come from the limited dictionary funds, there is very little tax base to generate the revenue for public services like extension programs. No taxes – no services. Thus while the government may employ people as extension agents, they will have a fairly low salary and virtually no support funds to implement programs, and thus effectively reach only a small percent of the intended beneficiaries. This also means they will often be seeking supplemental income which this could be a financial necessity. In short most host governments are financially stalled unable to undertake the services expected of them let alone add additional services like those envisioned in the article. Please review the following webpage from the www.smallholderagriculture.com website along with any appropriate links:

http://smallholderagriculture.agsci.colostate.edu/financially-suppresse…

http://smallholderagriculture.agsci.colostate.edu/financially-stalled-g…

The second concern is the relevance of improved nutrition to an impoverished society where the most impoverished are expected to undertake the most ardent manual labor. The improved diets being promoted are often develop from academic sources, and I will agree they are ideal and highly desirable, but are they feasible. That is can the impoverished people they are intended to benefit have a wage base that will allow them to afford the diet, or the energy needed to produce it. This gets to the issue of calorie energy balance, in which most smallholder farmers have access to only about 2000 kcal/day, which will barely meet their basic metabolism needs let alone allow them to engage in heavy manual labor. To undertake a full day of diligent agronomic labor the dietary energy needs to be in excess of 4000 kcal/day. The result is the work day is restricted to 3 or 4 hours of limited diligence and it can take up to 8 weeks for basic crop establishment with declining potential yield and food security with the delay. If they cannot afford or produce this dietary energy what are the rational compromises they should make in their diets that will optimize their very survival. Does the need for calories to complete the coming day’s tasks trump the desire for more diversified diets? Please review the following webpages and related links, and if possible take time to work through the exercise: Hard Choices in Quality Nutrition. If so inclined you are more than welcome to print and post the poster.

http://smallholderagriculture.agsci.colostate.edu/calorie-energy-balanc…

http://smallholderagriculture.agsci.colostate.edu/ethiopia-diet-analysi…

http://webdoc.agsci.colostate.edu/smallholderagriculture/DietPoster.pdf

http://smallholderagriculture.agsci.colostate.edu/1028-2/

Dear All

Greetings from Ethiopia

One critical challenge in the extension and advisory service is the poor linkage between technology generators (academia/research) and extension or advisory service delivery (to disseminate the technology) and farmers linkages are also weak and affects the rate of adoption. As a result of such gaps research agenda are not often demand driven (needs and priorities of women are rarely brought to research agenda. This linkage gap also affects feedback generation form the end users (farmers) to initiate technology refinement or adoption. Strengthening this linkage and involving the private sector in this linkage is very important .The proven technologies can go to mass production and supply through the private sector possibly with credit facilities in order to increase the adoption rate. In the absence of such integration and linkages the marginalized group such as women will not have access to information and the new technologies.

I also believe that emphasis on economic objectives of Extension (production increase etc. etc.) and inadequate attention to the social objectives human wellbeing, nutrition, mind set etc.) has contributed to the observed gap.

The extension service delivery should pay due attention to decrease the workload of women so as to engage them not only on practical gender needs but also on their strategic gender needs (their political participation, leadership enhancement, access to information/knowledge etc.)

Also, in many rural setting there are few female extension agents to closely work with women groups to sensitize them, building their capacity, work not only on income poverty but also on human poverty to expand women choices. This will contribute to sustainable human development and mainstreaming of gender.

Furthermore, project socio economic survey/baseline studies should address the needs of both men and women and the monitoring indicators should be gender sensitive in order to track progress using gender.

Finally, I also suggest nutrition education be mainstreamed in the Education system particularly at university level and development agents working at community level should be trained in nutrition and measurement of key nutrition indicators.

Regards

Takele Teshome, Association for Sustainable Development Alternatives (ASDA)