Integrating Gender and Nutrition within Agricultural Extension Services

Despite achieving national food security and some reduction in poverty levels, poverty and malnutrition remain a serious problem for one-fourth of the population. Gender disparities are significant, with 78 percent of employed women working in agriculture, but their contributions not fully recognized due to cultural norms that value female seclusion and undervalue female labor. Women's ownership of land in their own names is limited to 3.5 percent, and access to and control over other productive assets is restricted. The Bangladesh national baseline survey of the Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index in 2011 found that the domains contributing most to low levels of empowerment were weak leadership and influence in the community, lack of control over resources, and lack of control over income. Providing women income-earning opportunities that are not tied to land or which require geographic mobility could be promising avenues for strengthening women's empowerment. The Integrating Gender and Nutrition within Agricultural Extension Services (INGENAES) project works to improve agricultural livelihoods by strengthening extension and advisory services to empower and engage smallholder farmers, men and women. Fertilizer Deep Placement (FDP) or urea deep placement (UDP) is a fertilizer application technology that involves placing a nutrient-dense briquette under the soil surface by hand or with an applicator to stimulate crop growth and productivity. In rice production, urea briquettes are typically used, and these briquettes are manufactured by locally-produced machines that compress the urea into a briquette or a mixture of nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P), and potassium (K) into a small "NPK" briquette. The urea briquette releases nitrogen into the soil, and the NPK briquettes release three nutrients into the soil: nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium, which foster crop growth. On average, using FDP increases rice yields by 15-20 percent compared to other fertilizer application techniques like surface broadcasting. Because the fertilizer is placed under the surface at about 3 to 4 inches (7-10 cm) depth, as opposed to being applied on the surface of fields, there is less nutrient loss through water runoff or volatilization. This means more nutrients can be absorbed to stimulate crop growth and productivity. The International Fertilizer Development Centre (IFDC) developed FDP through research focusing on improving nitrogen-uptake efficiency, and it has been researched in Bangladesh since 1986. By 2013, over 2.5 million farmers in Bangladesh were using FDP, and currently, under the USAID-funded Accelerating Agriculture Productivity Improvement (AAPI) project, IFDC is promoting FDP adoption in 22 districts in Bangladesh. The AAPI project has specific gender guidelines and strategies to include women in the project. In 2011, the project used the model village approach to gain women's participation through pre-existing women's agricultural groups. The objectives of this approach include maximizing FDP adoption, promoting men's and women's equitable access to resources and benefits, and introducing demand-driven interventions suitable for each village. The project has trained 40,000 women to use FDP for vegetable and fruit production, and the sale of the vegetables and fruit is intended to be an income-generating activity for women. Women rice producers are also targeted, and women who switched from broadcasting prilled urea to using Guti urea through deep placement earned, on average, USD $55 more per year.