UC Davis

This systematic review examines the best agricultural extension methods in the context of women’s empowerment, centering improvements in agency, achievements, and resources. Agricultural extension programs use projects and trainings to improve a community’s agriculture system by disseminating information through individual or group trainings, focus groups, on-farm demonstrations, or through the transfer of technologies. Many extension programs work in rural, impoverished communities. Unfortunately, extension practitioners often overlook women’s roles, failing to consider how the program may affect them, despite women being the primary farm laborers [2]. In this thesis research, I analyzed studies published since 2000 with the coding assistance of other students and my advisor. The studies included in this systematic review include at least one dimension of women’s empowerment (or disempowerment). In this review, I investigated the extension practices with highest retention rates, adaptability, and consideration for cultural and social realities to understand how agricultural extension empowers women. Most studies in this review involved communities in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia and provided training on the several different types of agriculture topics: irrigation, climate change resilience, inputs and fertilizer, plant breeding, and more. Using online databases like SCOPUS and Agricola, I gathered 62,517 papers and narrowed them down to the 90 final papers analyzed in this systematic review, through an extensive series of reviewing and coding. Using Naila Kabeer’s multidimensional empowerment research [7] as a theoretical framework, I found that most studies that measured women’s empowerment had indicated some level of empowerment while some did have unintended consequences provoking disempowerment while others showed empowerment in unintended areas. In this systematic review, I offer insight to understand women’s roles in agricultural communities and the significant socio-economic implications that may occur as a result from empowerment agendas in extension.