A Professor in Human Geography at the Lund University in Sweden says low literacy levels among small holder women farmers in Zambia is an obstacle to comprehension on pesticide usage.
Agnes Andersson Djurfeldt who is also the team leader of the Afrint group, an interdisciplinary group of researchers engaging researchers from nine research institutions in Africa has since called on pesticide manufacturers to use simplified explanation on pesticides.
Professor Djurfeldt challenged manufacturers to consider using graphics to enable women with low literacy levels comprehend instructions on how to use pesticides and other agro chemicals.
She explained that her group’s experience in Mkushi district in Central Province revealed that women are interested in farming but they need to be helped with ease to understand materials to enable them apply required chemicals correctly.
And Professor Djurfeldt has called for a cordial working relations between agro dealers and financial institutions to support women farmers.
She explained that cooperation between financial institutions and agro dealers will enable women access credit thereby improve agricultural production.
Professor Djurfeldt said this in Lusaka during the three day Sustainable Agricultural Intensification Research and Learning in Africa-SAIRLA Third International Learning Alliance meeting which closed yesterday.
Afrint group uses panel data from 4000 households in sub-Saharan Africa to study changes in rural livelihoods in more than hundred villages across nine countries from 2002 onwards.
The group has done qualitative field work at individual, household and village level mainly in Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria and Zambia.
Meanwhile, the International Institute for Environment and Development-IIED has called for increased funding towards land improvement especially among poor farmers.
Barbara Adolph a Principal Researcher in IIEDs Natural Resources research group in the United Kingdom says for farmers to increase yields there should be adequate funding towards land improvement.
IIED is a policy and action research organisation promoting sustainable development and linking local priorities to global challenges.
Agreed!!
Actually, i have even seen instructions using ” Oz, gallon etc” We should not allow this. Other labels will tell you something like ‘ 20L/Hectare”, without giving you the concentration ratio ( for eg, 20 ml/10L).
Again, how are ZNFU interacting with Ministries of commerce / agriculture to put an end to this?