Supporting access and implementation of agricultural extension services for female smallholder farmers – a systematic review
Women have always played a central role in smallholder agriculture in many farming systems of the Global South. However, they have had, and still have, low access to agricultural information, and even less ability to enact on training or advice received, in comparison to male farmers. The paper inve...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Taylor & Francis Group
2025-12-01
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| Series: | International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability |
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| Online Access: | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/14735903.2025.2505387 |
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| _version_ | 1849691809983234048 |
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| author | Ylva Nyberg Heather Mackay Merezia Wilson Mohamed Samkunde Johanna Wetterlind |
| author_facet | Ylva Nyberg Heather Mackay Merezia Wilson Mohamed Samkunde Johanna Wetterlind |
| author_sort | Ylva Nyberg |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Women have always played a central role in smallholder agriculture in many farming systems of the Global South. However, they have had, and still have, low access to agricultural information, and even less ability to enact on training or advice received, in comparison to male farmers. The paper investigates what is needed for female smallholders to better benefit from agricultural advice and training. A systematic literature review of 2665 articles, with data extraction from 111 articles was implemented. A thematic content analysis on the articles that were ranked as highly relevant gave further insights into critical factors needed for agricultural advisory services to better serve women farmers in contexts across the Global South. Our findings show how a focus on the women themselves, in terms of their basic education, their time burden, their confidence, is insufficient if approaches do not also consider the relations of women with men in the context and the gendered power dynamics. Policy, research and extension must grapple with these deeper and more sensitive aspects of societal norms, traditions, and structural inequalities that perpetuate unequal terms for female farmers. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-7472678457f8434db5ec9e9d2bcaffe3 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 1473-5903 1747-762X |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-12-01 |
| publisher | Taylor & Francis Group |
| record_format | Article |
| series | International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability |
| spelling | doaj-art-7472678457f8434db5ec9e9d2bcaffe32025-08-20T03:20:55ZengTaylor & Francis GroupInternational Journal of Agricultural Sustainability1473-59031747-762X2025-12-0123110.1080/14735903.2025.2505387Supporting access and implementation of agricultural extension services for female smallholder farmers – a systematic reviewYlva Nyberg0Heather Mackay1Merezia Wilson2Mohamed Samkunde3Johanna Wetterlind4Department of Soil and Environment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Skara, SwedenDepartment of Human Geography, Lund University, Skara, SwedenBusiness School, University of Dar es Salaam, Skara, SwedenBusiness School, University of Dar es Salaam, Skara, SwedenDepartment of Soil and Environment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Skara, SwedenWomen have always played a central role in smallholder agriculture in many farming systems of the Global South. However, they have had, and still have, low access to agricultural information, and even less ability to enact on training or advice received, in comparison to male farmers. The paper investigates what is needed for female smallholders to better benefit from agricultural advice and training. A systematic literature review of 2665 articles, with data extraction from 111 articles was implemented. A thematic content analysis on the articles that were ranked as highly relevant gave further insights into critical factors needed for agricultural advisory services to better serve women farmers in contexts across the Global South. Our findings show how a focus on the women themselves, in terms of their basic education, their time burden, their confidence, is insufficient if approaches do not also consider the relations of women with men in the context and the gendered power dynamics. Policy, research and extension must grapple with these deeper and more sensitive aspects of societal norms, traditions, and structural inequalities that perpetuate unequal terms for female farmers.https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/14735903.2025.2505387Agricultural trainingdeveloping countriesempowermentgender sensitive extension, women |
| spellingShingle | Ylva Nyberg Heather Mackay Merezia Wilson Mohamed Samkunde Johanna Wetterlind Supporting access and implementation of agricultural extension services for female smallholder farmers – a systematic review International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability Agricultural training developing countries empowerment gender sensitive extension, women |
| title | Supporting access and implementation of agricultural extension services for female smallholder farmers – a systematic review |
| title_full | Supporting access and implementation of agricultural extension services for female smallholder farmers – a systematic review |
| title_fullStr | Supporting access and implementation of agricultural extension services for female smallholder farmers – a systematic review |
| title_full_unstemmed | Supporting access and implementation of agricultural extension services for female smallholder farmers – a systematic review |
| title_short | Supporting access and implementation of agricultural extension services for female smallholder farmers – a systematic review |
| title_sort | supporting access and implementation of agricultural extension services for female smallholder farmers a systematic review |
| topic | Agricultural training developing countries empowerment gender sensitive extension, women |
| url | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/14735903.2025.2505387 |
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