Can Extension Close the Gender Gap in Agriculture? A Mixed Methods Impact Evaluation from Uganda

Abstract: Malnutrition and food insecurity are urgent problems and increasingly salient policy topics, especially in the African context. Enhanced efficiency in agriculture and reduced gender inequalities have been raised as key solutions to these problems. One way to address the former is agricultural extension (AE) programmes. Despite their popularity, little research has been conducted on the specific impact of AE on dietary outcomes. This paper investigates the impact of AE on dietary outcomes and its differential impact on female headed households (FHHs) on rural farmers in Uganda. A mixed methods approach was used to quantify the effect of the AE programme and to explore the underlying mechanisms behind the result in interviews and group discussions. The quantitative results were obtained by matching data on a treatment group (AE programme participants) with a control group (from the Uganda National Panel Survey dataset). The quantitative results showed that the programme led to a substantial increase in food consumption on all three outcomes variables measured. However, the increase in the meals per day for FHHs was only around half of the average. The qualitative results showed that the overall positive impact stemmed from improved production, marketing and intra-household collaboration. The mechanisms explaining the differential impact for FHHs were lack of access to complementary inputs, in particular time and labour.