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Breaking New Ground: Reaching Out To Women Farmers In Western Zambia, Janice Jiggins, Paul Maimbo, Mary Masona

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Over the last few decades, small-scale projects have been developed throughout Africa to help incorporate women farmers into the mainstream of agricultural extension services. This edition of SEEDS presents an interesting example from Zambia's Western Province—the Women's Extension Program, located within the Home Economics Section of the Department of Agriculture. This program is working to change a government agricultural bureaucracy from within by redefining mandates, encouraging attitude change through staff training, broadening village-level opportunities and perceptions, and widening technical and economic research agendas. The program’s experience emphasizes the importance of using a variety of approaches in order to effectively reach …