The critical challenge to be addressed by ZIM/91/005 is not only the incorporation of sociological (including gender) perspectives and methods into AGRITEX analysis and planning but also the use of the concomitant results in the programmes of its extension and technical services.
In the course of the constraint analysis a lot of issues within the services have been raised which require answers. Some of these questions are as follows; to what extent is agricultural policy based on understanding of women's role in economic and social change? Does this understanding extend to a sufficient allocation of resources? In particular, does it appear that the practice of AGRITEX extension is changing accordingly?
This study suggests that AGRITEX needs to examine more closely whether rural women are yet in focus, and establish evidence on whether AGRITEX's extension is actually reaching rural women effectively.
The problems and issues that emerge from this analysis require urgent attention in terms of verification and formulation of strategies to deal with them in the context of AGRITEX's mainstream activities. The issues can be categorised as coming under the following subject areas:
i. Extension farmer contact and adoption from a gender perspective.
ii. Gender issues in irrigated agriculture.
iii. Women professionals in AGRITEX.
iv. AGRITEX's perspectives on specific WID projects.
It is further hoped that verification studies envisaged through this analysis will not stop short after demonstrating how development in the agricultural sector has marginalised women's resources and activities, but will lead to development of a methodology to bridge the 88p between research and practice, that it will not be confined to iterating the quality and degree of women's disadvantages, but would place women in the center of the agricultural extension and planning process.
