disasterous. (Where men and women farmers are similar in their access to land, labor, and capital, gender probably would not be a factor in recommendation domains.)
Should these low resource households be ignored? Another study on these households documented that they were being ignored by extension and credit programs (Evans, 1981). To remedy the situation, methods were devised by a British researcher that involved several steps. First, the cooperation of male extensionists and male village leaders was required to bring women into the extension arena and to enable them to articulate their problems. Second, the notions of credit "worthiness" had to be changed. Finally, the actual credit packages had to be modified. To do this, male village leaders were asked to designate women farmers for leadership training. The women were taught leadership skills by both male and female extension personnel. Then they were able to articulate their problems in farming. In general, they. noted that extension services by-passed them in terms of credit and training. In particular, it eventually became clear to the male staff members that, because of the women's small land holdings and because of their risk-averting practice of intercropping, the standard credit packages of improved seed and fertilizers (in multiples of one acre) were too large. The solution to credit services by-passing women was to instruct the male as well as the female staff members to target women. But a method of determining "credit worthiness" (usually defined by collateral or membership in the mostly male farmers' clubs) had to be devised and a way to pay back the cash for inputs had to be found. These women were not members of farmers clubs organized by the male workers and lacked collateral so their "credit worthiness" was nil. A new method was devised in which they could be vouched for by male village headmen. Also it was unknown as to how these women would pay back the loan. These households would have no cash sales, because the inputs were helping them to attain food self-sufficiency. It was known that women are particularly concientious about repaying loans. The women, much to everyone's surprise, began paying back the loan from the sale of beer and crafts even prior to the harvest (Evans, 1983).
The solution to the actual credit package itself was the creation of mini-technical packages (of 1/2 acre) of fertilizer and seed. With the assistence of the male extension staff, the number of women getting credit in the project increased from 5% to 20% of the credit recipients in a single year. These households went from food deficient to food self-sufficient households. However, nonstandard techniques had to be used and the male extension staff members were important to the success of the endeavor.
The second example of using women as trial cooperators concerns demonstrations and trials with soybeans (Spring, 1985; 1986b). In this situation, women were targeted through their home economics classes to learn the recipes for using soybeans. The Ministry of Agriculture determined that this crop would improve the rural diet that was deficient in fats and proteins. The female staff members were used to reach the women and they only taught recipes but not methods to cultivate the crop. (The female extensionists did not know how to grow the crop and lacked training on rhizobium inoculation andthe use of fertilzers). In a test of whether or not the male extension staff could work with women farmers, the WIADP held demonstrations one year and gave inputs and instruction to 59 female cooperators. There were a range of environments and it was possible to compare the performance of women farmers. The better farmers had better management and viable inoculum. The poorer farmers had