Accelerating adoption of climate-smart agriculture
Photo: Adam Öjdahl/IWMI
Women play a vital role in agricultural production in low-income countries, but often lack the information needed to improve their agricultural practices. A recent dissemination event in Uganda highlighted the potential of targeted video-based extension to boost women’s adoption of key climate-smart technologies.
In Uganda, women carry out most agricultural activities, but agricultural information continues to be directed toward household heads, typically men. This creates a gender gap in information that could hobble the efforts of the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF) to transform smallholder farmers from subsistence to commercial farmers. The “Reaching Smallholder Women with Information Services and Resilience Strategies to Respond to Climate Change” project was piloted to bridge this gap. The project findings were presented to stakeholders in Kampala last month.
Participants in the event stressed that women farmers play a crucial role in agriculture and in global efforts to build sustainable, climate-resilient food systems. In her opening remarks, Claudia Ringler, Deputy Director of the Environment and Production Technology Division at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and project lead, highlighted that “Women farmers account for 46 percent of all agricultural work in Africa, and even more so in Uganda, where they account for up to 70 percent of all agriculture activities.”
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