As the world tries fully to comprehend and meet the challenge of feeding millions of hungry people, there is growing recognition of the important role played by rural women in agricultural production. This recognition also underlines the fact that there is a serious lack of both female extension workers and suitable extension models for them to follow.
This case study concentrates on the extension modality followed by a group of female extension assistants in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, which is located in the north of Pakistan. The presence of female extension workers in this very traditional part of the world is in itself a real novelty. The use of women's community development groups as a platform for female extension workers to deliver extension advice has been explored and compared with the extension approach of contacting individual farmers.
This study, conducted in a traditional region with a prevailing Muslim population, provides valuable information that can be easily adapted to similar situations in other regions of the world where female extension workers are not yet present, or where their work is constrained by religious, cultural or personal safety factors.
Ester Zulberti
Chief
Extension, Education and
Communication Service
FAO headquarters, Rome
