Women education –A pivotal cog in agricultural production- Implications for extension in smallholder irrigation production in Zimbabwe
Ben BS Modondo
Zimbabwe Open University
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Abstract
Zimbabwe has developed an extensive smallholder irrigation programme covering two hundred and fifty thousand hectares, all of which are distributed in eight of its tEn provinces. The schemes vary in area between ten hectares and one hundred hectares each Plots varying between 0.4 and one hectare have been allocated on the basis of male-headship over the years. In this case over two million people depend on this type of irrigation farming. Crops recommended here are commercial crops with a high yield potential and a lucrative cash return. The policy has an in-built focus on high return on investment. Over the years the response to technical planning has been low. At best only fifty percent of potential yields has been achieved and less than fifty percent of the recommendations have been adopted and that the majority of farmers have allocated thirty three percent of their efforts to crops which were never part of the original design. One realization that has emerged from the performance is that the original focus on men as key movers of irrigation production was erroneous. The real movers of smallholder systems of the magnitude mentioned here are women. Here women contribute seventy percent of the labour, take up eighty percent of the domestic chores, seventy percent of community service, ninety percent of reproductive work and over ninety percent of marketing, They are further responsible for the adoption and implementation of most innovations brought by extension agencies. They interact more with extension agencies. Yet at institutional level,only less than ten percent of administrators are women and at field level less than thirty percent of advisors are female Of the farmers less than forty five percent of women farmers are functionally literate and at school level only forty percent of girl children reach seventh grade against over eighty percent of boy children. Most girl children take an early exit out of school and join the market place as vendors At decision level women are relegated to listeners, at technical level they are treated as recipients and at field level they are adopters and implementers of the technology passed on to them through the head of household.
Introduction
A gender-based study was carried out to determine the key limitations to education for women farmers in irrigation production. Four indicators were used to measure the extent of the limitations.The first indicator was the level of functional literacy the majority of women farmers had in the schemes.It was important to determine this level because it has an impact on the interpretation of information provided by extension.The second indicator was comparative access to key resources by both male and female farmers as enablers to both education and production opportunities.Division of labour was the third indicator used to determine the freedom and latitude women farmers had on accessing training functions or attending lessons.The fourth indicator was access to extension training in the farmer training programme which is offered by the extension department of the Ministry of Agriculture.In order to place the study and the analysis into their institutional context,the key elements of the policy and philosophy of the department that has responsibility for extension services are quoted.
The training programme has been going on in the smallholder sector since 1923 It has been developed to provide training to both illiterate and literate farmers. The survey was done in two provinces of Zimbabwe in Manicaland and Midlands provinces which host sixty percent of the smallholder irrigation schemes of the country.Three hundred male headed homesteads made up the ten percent sample for the study.A unit of male-headed homestead was used to provide comparison in the allocation of resources between the two complementary members of the homestead as it offered the best analysis capable of accommodating the dynamics of gender The use of the term homestead is preferred here because it encompasses the residential area as well as the agricultural fields and the area in and around the home from which women derive the raw materials for the provision of daily basic needs.( Brycesson 1995) The study was administered by teams split equally between male and female extension staff.It was important to do this in order to reduce bias among staff during the recording of data..
Education in its global context and the space for women there of
Definition
World Bank(1971) defines education as a continuing process spanning from the years from earliest infancy through adulthood and necessarily involving a great variety of methods and sources
Modes of education
There are three modes of education which people may go throughout in their careers.
The first one is informal education.This is a life-long process by which every person acquires and accumulates knowledge ,skills,attitudes and insights from daily experiences and exposure to the environment.This can be at home,at play, at work,from examples and attitudes of family and friends, from travel,reading newspapers and books or by listening to radios or viewing films and television.It is generally unorganized and unsystematic,yet it accounts for the great bulk of any person’s total lifelong learning.This includes even the life of a highly schooled or unschooled individual.
The second mode of education is formal education which is a highly institutionalized chronologically graded and hierarchically structured education system spanning lower primary school and the upper reaches of the university.
The third form of education is the non-formal education which is any organized form of learning focused on a specific profession.This type of education was refered to as education for self reliance by Julius Nyerere(1968). In this case agricultural extension takes a specific case in point covering farmer training programmes, adult literacy programmes,women’s club training, occupational skill training outside the formal systems, youth clubs with substantial educational purposes,and various community programmes of instructions in health, nutrition,family planning and co-operatives.
Similarities of formal and non-formal systems
Both are organized to augument and improve upon the informal learning processes as they exist where they are today.They promote and facilitate certain value types of learning such as reading and writing that individuals cannot as readily or quickly acquire through ordinary exposure to their environment. The systems are similar in pedagogical form and methods However,these differ in sponsorship, institutional and educational objectives and in the groups they serve.The differences are further expressed in levels of prioritisation by various users and sponsors.
Education and the development process
Beneficiaries of education must learn and apply improved ways of living.Education alone cannot precipitate a dynamic process of national development without essential complementary forces like agriculture with increased farm income,and services,non agricultural services,village artisans,craftspersons and vibrant small shopkeepers,functional nearby markets becoming major growth points. Broad-based education has an unprecedented opportunity to contribute to generating new employment and advancing rural development but it needs to anticipate and respond to new skills demands and knowledge requirements and prepare both young people and adults to meet them.Here flexibility and adaptability of nonformal education is essential.
Girl children also deserve equal stakes in education
Educational packages currently offered in developing countries generally focus on basic education with the following elements taking top priority; literacy,numeracy, and an element of elementary science on one’s need to understand the environment.The primary and general objective of most syllabi is to see the child leap through primary and secondary levels with an academic certificate which he or she can hang on the wall for visitors to see.This type of education fails to prepare the individual for a practical future (Dumont 1983)Parents are confronted with choices of who should have preference to proceed between a son or daughter.Yet more often than not the son invariably gets a chance to advance in preference to a daughter(Coombs et al..1971 D’AETH 1979).Non formal education is designed primarily to impart knowledge, skills and attitudes useful in improving the quality of family life,on such subjects as health and nutrition, homemaking and child care,home repairs and improvements and family planning.Augumenting,the above is occupational education which is designed to develop particular knowledge and skills associated with various economic activities and is useful in making a living The two types of education are needed for both young people, adults, male and female Here people engaged in agriculture make the majority of active labour force and the largest audience for occupational education,particularly those resident in irrigation schemes.It includes all categories of people, adults, young people of different ages and gender.
Types of learning needs for responsible living from non-formal education
Non-formal educational programmes should cover a broad spectrum of options in order to carter for diverse needs of participants in agriculture.The suggested band of options covers the interests of both male and female participants in any agricultural endeavour including irrigation production in rural or urban settings.The following package is suggested as an option for skill development out of which opportunities may be created for both male and female farmers by development agencies.
1)farm planning and management,rational decision-making,record keeping, cost and revenue computations and use of credit
2)application of new inputs, varieties, improved farm practices
3)storage,processing,food presevation
4) supplementary skills for farm maintenance and improvement and sideline jobs for extra income
5)knowledge of government services, policy and programme targets
6)knowledge and skills for family improvements for example health,nutrition,home economics,child care,and family planning
7)civic skills-knowledge of how co-peratives work, associations and local government
The biggest weakness of educational programmes in Zimbabwe syllabi spefically and Southern Africa in general is that they are not particularly gender sensitive.They are further worsed by an outright focus on academic bias on which the bulk of resources are allocated in favour of educating male recepients.
There is need for Zimbabwe to develop life-long systems which provide each individual with a flexible and diversified range of useful learning options through-out life.The systems should enfuse and systemise elements of formal, informal and nonformal education There is need to visualize various educational activities as potential components of a coherent and flexible overall learning system that must be steadily strengethened,diversified and linked more closely to the needs and processes of individual and group empowerment leading to national development For education has a direct bearing on the efficiency and effectiveness of labour performance.
In order to put the need for the education of women farmers into its relative importance,the following salient issues were investigated.These included the level of basic education by women at scheme level,and activities done by women.The level of involvement has an effect on the extent of responsibility and the ability of the woman farmer in carrying out her duties.
Results
Women education - only men’s surplus
Level of education of women irrigators by scheme by percentage of trained farmers of both male and female farmers.
Scheme / Mutema / Mkoba / Deure / Hama / NyamaropaGrad-6 / 21.3 / 45.6 / 29.0 / 22.8 / 24.9
Grad 7+ / 11.7 / 20.5 / 13.9 / 10.7 / 17.9
Total / 33.0 / 66.1 / 42.9 / 33.5 / 42.8
Mean / 16.5 / 33.05 / 21.45 / 16.8 / 21.4
Source: Manicaland and Midlands survey: women access to basic education 2007
From the survey, female farmers with less than six years of basic education accounted for 30.2% and those with grade seven or higher than grade seven accounted for only 24.9%.. This is contrasted by between 55.5% of men at the same schemes. The result compares quite closely to the 2002 Central Statistical Office Report. The high level of illiteracy has an effect on the use of information available to women as they cannot attend extension meetings as regularly as men do. The situation has greater adverse effects as the amount of technology introduced increases, particularly in cases where the local extension agents impose sanctions which require functional literacy in order for the trainees to benefit from the training. Women are further more affected as most lessons are given in their absence due to other commitments.The lack of education is more pronounced where farmers need to adopt new technology in the absence of the extension worker.
TABLE 1 (a) MIDLAND TOTAL MASTERFARMER GRADUATES
Master Farmer Training by Gender
% Male / % FemaleGokwe North / 88.6 / 12.4
Gokwe South / 83.9 / 16.1
Gweru/Shurungw / 63.6 / 36.4
Mberengwa / 47.5 / 52.5
Kwekwe / 79.3 / 20.7
Mvuma / 51.8 / 48.2
Mvuma / 63.6 / 36.4
65.8 / 34.2
Total / 5442 / 2487
Mean / 68.1 / 31.9
Source: Manicaland and Midlands Province Survey 2007
Comments
The results show that 68.1% of the farmers who attended courses on the farmer training programme were male farmers. The balance of the attendants were female farmers. Male farmer trainees took up the bulk of the training benefits.
iv) Farmer training
The department of extension offers comprehensive training programmes to farmers in both rain-fed and irrigated farming. One of these programmes is a Master Farmer programme. The programme is done in two parts. The first part is called the "ordinary" and the second part is the "advanced’’.The difference between the two is that the ordinary programme is mainly oral and practical and the latter has written and practical requirements. Some literacy and numeracy are a pre-requisite for the "advanced." programme. The programme has been running since 1923. The focus up to the last fifteen years encouraged only male farmers as the legitimate beneficiaries.
At the end of the course a certificate is given to successful candidates. It is used as a selection criterion into new schemes, and also for tax exemptions in buying inputs. The programme has, however, been plagued by a high rate of female farmer drop-outs.
Some of the reasons given by farmers and staff are:-
· lack of inputs for the rest of the two year duration;
· -transfers of an extension worker from one area to another;
· -difficulty to maintain the rigorous routine of the programme against other demands on a woman as a housewife or head of a household. This demand has contributed most to the screening of less to do female farmers who cannot afford cost of a domestic worker.