Gender appropriateness of field days in knowledge generation and adoption of push-pull technology in eastern Africa

Abstract

The performance of the agricultural sector in many developing countries has been rated as belowaverage, in particular the staple cereal crops whose productivity is limited by both biotic and abioticfactors. Furthermore, underperformance by the agricultural sector has in part been attributed to theinability of women to access resources, yet they represent a crucial resource in agriculture and the ruraleconomy through their roles as farmers and entrepreneurs. These challenges can be overcome by un-derstanding gender roles and perceptions, and aligning innovations tofit the preferences of specificgender. This study evaluated gender specific perceptions and the extent of adoption of a climate-smartpushepull technology for controlling stemborers, African witch weed (Strigaspp.), and improving soilfertility in drier agro-ecological zones where these constraints are quickly spreading. Thefindings showthat slightly higher percentage of women (98.6%) perceived the technology as effective compared to men(96.7%). Women also highly rated the beneficial attributes of the technology such as increased cerealproduction (97.3% of the women vs 94.6% of men), decline inStrigaspp. weed (97.2% women vs 92.4% ofmen), increase in soil fertility (95.9% of women vs 90% of men), increase in fodder production (94.1% ofwomen vs 91.3% of men) and increase in cereal and fodder production even with drought (82.3% ofwomen vs 66.5% of men). Thefindings show that, women who are the most vulnerable of the small-holder farmers, are bound to benefit from the technology, mostly because its attributes favors their(women) preferences