FARMERS' SURVEY OF STALL FEEDERS IN LRDP OF LADD


 WIADP in coordination with- extension personnel in the Animal
 Husbandry Section of LADD interviewed men and women farmers who
 did stall feeding of steers using crop residues from October to
 December 1981. The study looked :at sex differences in recruitment,
 operations., renumerations and the fit of the enterprise into the
 farming system.

 FARMING .SYSTEMS RESEARCH IN LRDP OF -LADD-

 The FS survey -was dne in- LRDP in 1981 by a team led
S .by Hansen.. No mention was made of the number of men and women
farmers interviewed and the general term "farmer" was used.
 Therefore it is difficult to..know whether the findings and
 recommendations also covered women.. The cn-farm research trils
on the response of local maize to fertilizer in LRDP might or
might'not have included female cooperators but there is no
mention of male and female farmers involved in the trials.


*SOYABEAN RESEARCH IN LRDP AND THIWI-LIFIDZI PROJECT OF LADD

 Spring (1983)"reported that in the 1981/82 cropping
season, WIADP trained women farmers in soyabean agronomy in LRDP
and conducted farmer-managed demonstrations. This programme
.came about through the project's interest in extension training
for women. In one unit of LRDP women were taught soyabean
cookery. but not soyabean agronomy. The project studied how
 female. soybean growers followed the recommendations on soybean
agronomy. as well as measuring their yields. Farmers growing
soyabeans in the Thiwi-Lifidzi project area were interviewed to
discover their experience with .the crop. As a result of the
interviews and demonstrations, a technical problem concerning
the method of inoculating the seed was identified..., As a result of
this problem, on-farm, farmer-managed trials have been set up to
compare three methods of soyabean inoculation this growing
season (1982/83). The treatments are (1) seed without inoculation;
(2) inoculum mixed with seed and (3) inoculum mixed with sand
and applied in the furrow.

 The soyabean programme is intended to point out that
 (a) home economics training is not sufficient for women farmers
 who also need agronomic information; (b) research station
 recommendations may present difficulties under smallholder
 condition; (c) women farmers should be included in on-farm farmer-
 managed trials; and (d) research and extension need to relate
 to smallholder problems.


 JUSTIFICATION FOR INCLUDING RURAL WOMEN IN FSR PROGRAMME

 Rural women are a heterogeneous group in terms of their
 agricultural production and resources (labour',.capital and
 land). There taare ;low, medium and high resources women ,farmers-
 There are women who are farm managers on their own; .while others
 work with their husbands.


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