News: In Kenya, Survey of Female Farmers Uncovers Challenges

A World Bank survey in Kenya that seeks women’s input and data to inform agricultural policy shows that female farmers have limited access to water, energy and finance, and few women own property they can use as collateral for loans. As agriculture becomes ‘feminized’ and men abandon farms to work in cities, policies must change to meet women’s needs. Read more here: http://go.worldbank.org/ETKDJPYK70

Event (DC): Passports to Progress ICRW’s 35th Anniversary Colloquy

Join ICRW as we kick off our 35^th anniversary celebration on March 8, International Women’s Day, with a conversation about breakthrough innovations poised to transform the trajectory of women’s lives.

Game-changing Innovations for Women

Moderator: Andrea Mitchell, NBC News Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent
Host, MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports”

Confirmed Speakers: Cherie Blair, Founder, Cherie Blair Foundation for Women
Bobbi Silten, Chief Foundation Officer, Gap Inc.

When: Tuesday, March 8, 2011
6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Where: National Press Club
529 14th St., NW, 13th Floor
Washington, D.C. 20045

The March 8 event will be the first in a year-long series of exclusive gatherings to address critical issues likely to shape the lives of women and girls in developing countries.

For more information on “Game-changing Innovations for Women,” contact Jo Butler at 202.742.1227 or jbutler@icrw.org

Publication: Access, Adoption, and Diffusion Understanding the Long-term Impacts of Improved Vegetable and Fish Technologies in Bangladesh

Neha Kumar & Agnes R. Quisumbing (IFPRI)

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This paper assesses long-term impacts of vegetable and polyculture fish production technologies on a variety of measures of household and individual well-being in Bangladesh. In 1996–1997, households were surveyed in three sites where nongovernmental organizations and extension programs were disseminating agricultural technologies—about two to six years after the technologies were first introduced. The same households were reinterviewed in 2006–2007.

CALL FOR PROPOSALS: 2 DFID Programs (1) Future of Aid and Beyond, (2) New and Emerging Technologies

The DFID Research Strategy 2008–2013 recognised a key role for research was to help anticipate and respond to future trends and technology that will impact on the lives of poor people. To take this agenda forward DFID is now establishing two new research programmes, the Future of Aid and Beyond and New and Emerging Technologies.

More information.

Deadline: July 12, 2010

Publication: GENDER -SPECIFIC CONSTRAINTS AFFECTING TECHNOLOGY USE AND HOUSEHOLD FOOD SECURITY IN WESTERN PROVINCE OF KENYA

Author: Stella Mikalista Journal: African Journal of Food Agriculture Nutrition and Development

The factors that hinder farm intensification process among smallholders in Kenya are many and varied. These factors are not gender neutral; they affect the ability of both men and women to achieve greater productivity in agriculture. Lack of farm intensification contributes to stagnation of agriculture, increases poverty and limits rural development. The problems that face women farmers are more distinct due to socio-cultural constraints that affect their access to and control over essential assets necessary for improving their livelihoods and those of their households. Lack of access to and ownership of productive assets is an effect as well as a cause of poverty.

The objective of the study was to assess gender specific constraints that affect the impact of farm technologies on household food security among smallholders in Western Province of Kenya. A multi-stage stratified random sampling technique was used to select 499 households. Using a semi-structured questionnaire administered to household heads together with six focus group discussions, the study examined how gender affects the intensity of use of farm technologies such as hybrid seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, animal draught power and storage technologies and impact on household food security. In addition, the study analyzed the effect of the level of education of household head and contact with extension service on maize yield.

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