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Extension GEAP represents a potential and sound vehicle to bring about a change in the long-held perceptions that undervalue the role of women and culturally diverse domestic audiences in agriculture and natural resource management. Extension agents, both male and female of different backgrounds, trained in gender issues and participatory planning are more effective in identifying a diversity of needs, constraints, priorities, and opportunities to ensure that services meet clientele requirements. Consequently, the inclusion of gender, diversity and participation issues through GEAP in-service training efforts will help to improve client access to and participation in agricultural and Extension services. International Extension A 1989 Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) global survey on Extension carried out in 115 countries showed that although women make up 51 percent of the agricultural labor force worldwide, they receive only five percent of all Extension services and about six percent of Extension personnel’s time. Only 15 percent of the world’s Extension agents are women. A wide range of factors, many of them deeply embedded in the gendered nature of culture and society, prevent many women from participating in formal agricultural education and non-formal Extension training. Training materials, methods, and programs in Extension need to be adapted to the needs of smallholder farmers, particularly women-headed households. GEAP in-service training can help address this situation and consequently enhance the internalization of U.S. domestic extension professionals, with the consequence of increasing the efficiency, effectiveness, and relevance of Extension programming, particularly with respect to gender and a culturally diverse clientele. |
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