Problem Solving

David Wakhata added:

Basing on the current situation of extension in Uganda, farmer are many in that they do not equally benefit from a few expansionists(case of Mbale) despite the current effort by the government of Uganda to improve extension service. The technology have come up and some people,organizations and projects are using such technologies specifically electronic media including mobile phones to ensure that farmers access extension services.But most of the farmers are in rural areas where access to the media and or the use of the phone is cumbersome. to areas where it is accessible, farmers are to busy with farm work (women mostly, who in turn do most of the farm work). field experiences shows;Cultural prejudice continue to be used by men to control women,Insecurity of some men when their wives’ voices are frequently aired on the radio (either as star or radio farmers), Lack of capacity by the actors to identify and integrate gender in media work, African women seem to fear their husbands rather than respecting them so it is not easy to conduct interviews in presences of their husbands, Sometimes, male presenters on the radio get excited (sometimes use ‘inappropriate’ words) when females call in and this seems to annoy and discourage their husbands from allowing their wives to call in. in addition,Targeting women alone has failed in the past – A case of a project which targeted women for maize and beans and trained them to plant beans and maize in lines. When the women had just planted the maize alone and were about to plant the beans in lines too, the men came by and complained that the women were wasting the land and they broadcasted the beans in the maize,Some social groups like Muslims may not allow women to freely interact with men,and Women are over whelmed with domestic work.

The first issue is, who provides this information in the media? what is their expertise level on topic presented? Do they offer this information free? I have listened to a presenter offering extension advice on maize production in my country and a listener asked how to identify seed maize from grain maize. The presenter advised the listener to buy seed from a shop and not open market. The question is, how different are the traders in shops from those selling in open market? This is confusing the vulnerable farmers and exposing them to exploitation by unscrupulous dealers . Electronic media is very good for extension services but has to be provided by experts and should offer space for question and answers, which must be addressed by experts. Otherwise, the vulnerable farmer will remain exploited and poor.

the effectiveness of the technology used in Agriculture extension mainly depend on accessibility of technology and then other factors in context to effective communication process. Country in which having higher technological literacy for use technological devices like mobile phones, Radio. Computers would get benefits over who do not have it. Evidence in my country on access to information via mobile once they need dialing to Agricultural extension service center has been shown effective mechanism. nevertheless, technological advantages is not much close to those developing country where Agriculture being dominating in poor rural areas and even less access to technology.

Recommendations for better integration of gender

1. Tease out gender issues at planning stages
2. Identify strategies to address gender issues e.g. the gender proposals for under beans
3. Affirmative action in favor of women for example in selecting beneficiaries, interviewees, enterprises and technologies
4. Provide instant incentives tagged to women’s participation. For example the presenter can promise to give a few kilograms of seed/T-shirt/cap for every woman who will call during the radio programme. This incentive mechanism can be facilitated by partnering with seed/input companies/schools/banks/microfinance other institutions.
5. Listener clubs for different categories of people (Youth, men, women, PWDs and mixed ones)
6. Sensitize radio producers and presenters on gender
7. Capturing testimonies from women and airing them. Better if these testimonies from women who have succeeded in collaborating with her husband e.g. her husband allows her more access to funds.'

Elizabeth Asiimwe posted: 'With the wide ratio of extension workers to farmers( which is about 1:2500) in my country, technology ICT really comes in handy. For example there is a program called the grameen foundation which offers a mobile telephone service platform where farmers call in and ask questions. It has community knowledge workers who are given phones with an app(not internet based) that bears information ranging from crops, livestock to inputs etc. Of late it has partnered with a seed company( Victoria seeds limited) to improve service delivery. In my opinion, such an innovative approach can help close the gap brought about by the wide ratio of ext workers to farmers. The challenge however is: are farmers willing to meet the cost of aritime to call in or trek the long distance to the ckw's residence?'