Determining Perceptions of Smallholder Women Farmers

Louiza Duncker of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in South Africa will evaluate the perception of labor by women smallholder farmers in South Africa and their need of labor-saving efforts, in order to guide the development of an effective labor-saving practice or device. Current labor-saving efforts are often driven by supply, without a full understanding of the needs of the users. They will identify measurable variables, such as time, to generate questionnaires to capture more broadly the perception of labor in a study group of smallholder farmers in three diverse regions of South Africa. They will also determine the farmers' needs for and knowledge and perception of labor-saving, and use this to identify an appropriate tool or practice. The results could be used to develop guidelines for wider application of their approach.