The Integrating Gender and Nutrition within Agricultural Extension Services (INGENAES) project is funded through the Bureau for Food Security of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to support the Presidential Feed the Future Initiative, which strives to increase agricultural productivity and the incomes of both men and women in rural areas who rely on agriculture for their livelihoods. This report is a reference document that aims to provide an overview of the current status of Ethiopia’s agriculture as well as the country’s status in relation to the prevalence of poverty, nutrition and gender related issues. The report summarizes Ethiopia’s agricultural, gender, and nutrition policy, and USAID’s strategic goals and objectives for the country in these areas. 

This landscape study provides an overview of Burundi’s agriculture and the status of the country’s extension system. It also provides information on the prevalence of poverty, nutrition and gender related issues in the country with special focus on rural areas. The report summarizes Burundi’s current agricultural and nutrition policy and details the strategic goals and objectives of USAID and other donors in the country. Finally, since the end of the 1993-2005 war, Burundi hosted a number of United States Government (USG) funded projects aimed at rebuilding the war-devastated nation and economy. The report provides a summary of the on-going projects by the USG and other donors in the country related to agriculture extension, and gender and nutrition impacts. 

This landscape study provides an overview of Nepal’s agriculture and the status of the country’s extension system. It also provides information on the prevalence of poverty, nutrition and gender related issues in the country with special focus on rural areas. It summarizes Nepal’s current agricultural and nutrition policy and details the strategic goals and objectives of USAID and other donors in the country. This report provides a summary of on-going projects by the USG and other donors in the country related to agriculture extension, and gender and nutrition impacts. 

This landscape study provides an overview of agriculture in Cambodia as well as the country’s extension system. It also provides information on the prevalence of poverty, nutrition, and gender-related issues in the country with special focus on rural areas. In addition, it summarizes Cambodia’s current agriculture and nutrition policy, and it also reviews several on-going projects by the U.S. government and other donors in the country related to agriculture extension, gender, and nutrition.

Linking agricultural extension and advisory service (EAS) with participatory learning and action on nutrition and health has the potential to improve the sustainability and impact of food and agricultural programmes on nutrition and household food security. Due to their established structure/network and their greater reach to the community of whom they often already have the trust, agricultural extension and advisory workers (EAW) are probably the best resource to help achieve nutrition security through nutrition education to farmers. In  order to do so, the extension workers must receive nutrition and nutrition education training. This desk review aims at mapping how nutrition is currently being mainstreamed into agricultural EAS preOservice and inOservice training and to give recommendation on the way forward. 

 The need for nutrition-sensitive agriculture is well recognized and of growing interest to global development players. Extension and advisory services (EAS), with their established infrastructure, provide a unique opportunity for nutrition interventions to be implemented at scale with significant reach.  To assess current integration of nutrition in EAS, document training provided to EAS agents, and identify challenges and opportunities for the integration of nutrition.  Methods: A mixed methodology was used, which included a systematic literature review covering the following databases: PubMed, ISI Web of Science, Agris, Google Scholar, Econlit, and IBSS. In addition, online surveys and semistructured key informant interviews with stakeholders were performed. Data were collected between December 2012 and June 2013.

The context in which extension operates has changed dramatically in recent decades. As a result, there is a renewed interest in extension and an interest in changing traditional approaches to extension. With that renewed interest comes demand for information and analysis. 

The overall goal of this report is to provide up-to-date information on key topics related to extension knowledge and perspectives and to enable decision makers to identify areas where (1) further evidence on extension through commissioned research is needed, and (2) extension investment practices should be reconsidered. 

In Ghana, majority (60%) of the population lives in rural areas and depends either directly or indirectly on agriculture for their livelihood and survival. Agriculture plays an important role in economic growth, food security, poverty reduction, livelihoods, rural development and the environment (Green et al., 2005). Growth in the agricultural sector stimulates higher rates of growth in the economy through forward linkage activities such as processing and transportation, and backward linkages like the provision of services to the sector, with further growth spurred as a result of spending incomes earned from all these productive activities (MoFA, 2003; UN, 2008; Winter-Nelson and Aggrey-Fynn, 2008). 

Farmer Field Schools evolved initially to address the challenge of ecological heterogeneity and local specificity in pest management, by supporting ecologically-informed decision-making by farmers that would allow them to reduce pesticide use, improve crop management and secure better profit margins. 

Classic FFSs rely for their effects on the development of learner-centred curricula for experiential learning that takes place in the field, allowing producers to observe, measure, analyse, assess and interpret key agro-ecosystem relationships as the basis for making informed management decisions. The adult education concepts and principles that underlie the design of curricula and of the learning cycle process have proven robust in all areas where FFSs have been developed. 

Objectives: To review the impact of agriculture interventions on nutritional status in participating households, and to analyse the characteristics of interventions that improved nutrition outcomes. Design: We identified and reviewed reports describing 30 agriculture interventions that measured impact on nutritional status. The interventions reviewed included home gardening, livestock, mixed garden and livestock, cash cropping, and irrigation. We examined the reports for the scientific quality of the research design and treatment of the data.We also assessed whether the projects invested in five types of ‘capital’ (physical, natural, financial, human and social) as defined in the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework, a conceptual map of major factors that affect people’s livelihoods.

In April 2014, at the invitation of USAID/Malawi, a MEAS team conducted an assessment of agricultural extension, nutrition education, and integrated agriculture-nutrition programs and systems in Malawi. An overarching purpose of the assessment is to investigate these programs and systems across public, private, and civil society sector providers with the aim of informing the design of an activity that will strengthen delivery of extension and nutrition outreach services in the seven Feed the Future focus districts in a coordinated and integrated manner. 

The assessment methodology includes literature review, interviews and field visits, and an assessment review workshop. The team reviewed agriculture extension, nutrition, and integrated programming literature; carried-out over 55 individual and group interviews; and made field trips to three districts. The review workshop, in which over 25 stakeholders from across sectors participated, was held to present preliminary findings of the assessment and obtain further input from stakeholders. 

In March and April 2014 , the Strengthening Partnerships, Results, and Innovations in Nutrition Globally (SPRING) project conducted a rapid, participatory process review to document experience and learning from activities that are utilizing a common strategy to promote nutrition through Feed the Future agriculture investments in Ethiopia. This strategy involves training agriculture development agents (DAs) to deliver nutrition social and behavior change (SBC) messages and interventions to support the integration of nutrition and agriculture. This review examined the experience of three Feed the Future activities: Empowering New Generations to Improve Nutrition and Economic Opportunities (ENGINE), Agricultural Growth Program – Agribusiness and Market Development Project (AGP-AMDe), and Pastoralist Resiliency Improvement and Market Expansion (PRIME). Capturing the process in Ethiopia contributes to the Feed the Future learning agenda and may also help refine agriculture-nutrition approaches in current and future activities around the world.