Championing gender in agricultural services in Kenya

Inglés. CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM)

Inglés. Key messages:• Champion farmers are male and female influencers recruited to support the delivery ofagricultural services to fellow farmers within their communities (including seeds,advisories, and crop insurance), thereby promoting gender and social inclusion.• Providing insurance as a stand-alone product is too expensive to build a sustainableand cost-effective champion farmer model; there is a need to integrate the model withother services, including the provision of seeds, and to leverage government subsidies.• Champion farmers face steep competition from other service providers in the provisionof seeds, but their networks give them opportunities to tap into underserved markets,as they have connections with women-led farmer collectives.• Female champion farmers’ socially ascribed gender roles and responsibilities relatedto homecare contribute to time poverty and drudgery and potentially inhibit the extentto which women can benefit from their champion role.• It is necessary to promote a better understanding of insurance among farmers andbuild farmers’ trust in services and products through additional training of championfarmers, sensitization of farmers, and awareness creation.

Non-PR

MTID; PIM

Inglés. IFPRI1; CRP2; 1 Fostering Climate-Resilient and Sustainable Food Supply; 3 Building Inclusive and Efficient Markets, Trade Systems, and Food Industry