Presentation by Una Murray at the Closing the gender gap in farming under climate change event on 19 March 2015 in Paris. More about the event: http://ccafs.cgiar.org/closing-gender-gap

1. Smallholder women’s empowerment through farmer-
participatory design and user-led innovation of labour-
saving agricultural tools in Malawi
Dr. Una Murray
3D4AGDEV, NUI Galway, Ireland
Zewdy Gebremedhin, Una Murray, Decolius Kalumo, Ash Tariku,
Willem Kamthunzi, Tony Murray, Rowland Chirwa, Rodah Zulu,
Paul Wagstaff & Charles Spillane

2. Smallholder women’s empowerment through farmer-
participatory design and user-led innovation of labour-
saving agricultural tools in Malawi
Dr. Una Murray
3D4AGDEV, NUI Galway, Ireland
Zewdy Gebremedhin, Una Murray, Decolius Kalumo, Ash Tariku,
Willem Kamthunzi, Tony Murray, Rowland Chirwa, Rodah Zulu,
Paul Wagstaff & Charles Spillane
www.3d4agdev.org

3. Women smallholder farmers largely dependent on manual labour and
hand-held tools
Minimal access to mechanized equipment and farm-level energy
sources for cultivation and post-harvest agri-processing
Rural Energy, Women’s Labour
& Climate Change Adaptation
Technology & energy deficit trap
can perpetuate rural poverty
How can women smallholders
move step-by-step towards
labour-saving innovations?
Foster innovation potential
of women smallholders
(climate change adaptation)
NKHAMENYA
KABUDULA

4. Labour Peaks (over Year) Labour Peaks (during day)
Labour Intensive Tasks
(& Existing Tools)
Rainy Season Tasks (& Tools)
1) Making Ridges (hoe)
2) Banking Ridges (hoe)
3) Weeding (hoe)
4) Planting (sticks, hoes, heels)
5) Clearing land (hoe, panga)
Dry Season Tasks (& Tools)
1) Cutting/decobbing maize (Panga, hands)
2) Threshing groundnuts (hands, sticks, sacks)
3) Shelling maize & groundnuts (hands)
4) Grinding maize (mortar & pestle)
1600 women smallholder farmers
192 “best bet
innovators”
Survey
16 innovator groups
Identification of high-labour tasks considered onerous by women
smallholder farmers

5. Participatory design
User-led innovation
Prototyping

6. High-labour post-harvest tasks
Grinding
maize
E
A B
Shelling
maize
Shelling
groundnuts
3D4AGDEV
Female farmer
designed
maize sheller
3D4AGDEV
Female farmer
designed
groundnut sheller
C D
F
3D4AGDEV
Female farmer
designed
maize grinder
women farmer designed tool prototypes offer major post-
harvest time savings
Post-harvest time savings
Maize sheller: 18 hours per
tonne (1000 kg)
Groundnut sheller: 571 hours
per tonne
Maize grinder: 58 hours per
tonne
* * *
00:00
05:00
10:00
15:00
20:00
25:00
30:00
35:00
40:00
Timetocompletion[min]
Conventionnal methods
New tools
Time taken for post-harvest processing
Existing Methods
3D4AGDEV Tools
Maize
sheller
Groundnut
sheller
Maize
grinder

7. Need national & institutional policies that:
• Provide supports and incentives to allow identification and fostering of rural
women innovators to generate and market livelihood improving products and
services.
• Engage women smallholder farmers as early as possible in needs-driven
participatory technology development where they become the agents of
change to promote and market innovations.
• Facilitate social enterprise models where women farmer innovator groups are
key partners and beneficiaries that can sustain and scale-up social enterprises.
Enabling environment for closing gender gaps & scale-up
via a social enterprise approach
with women farmer innovator groups?
 Social enterprises with women innovator groups
for climate adaptation and resilience