A/HRC/16/49 research.81 Not only research and extension services should develop into learning organisations, so too should ministries, and educational and financial institutions.82 Farmers’ organizations and networks have accumulated experience on the dissemination of agroecological practices in the last decade, with proven results. These movements are already functioning as learning organizations; they must now be supported in this role. D. Gender empowerment 41. Specific, targeted schemes should ensure that women are empowered and encouraged to participate in this construction of knowledge. Culturally-sensitive participatory initiatives with female project staff and all-female working groups, and an increase in locally-recruited female agricultural extension staff and village motivators facing fewer cultural and language barriers, should counterbalance the greater access that men have to formal sources of agricultural knowledge.83 It is a source of concern to the Special Rapporteur that, while women face a number of specific obstacles (poor access to capital and land, the double burden of work in their productive and family roles, and low participation in decision-making), gender issues are incorporated into less than 10 per cent of development assistance in agriculture, and women farmers receive only 5 per cent of agricultural extension services worldwide.84 In principle, agroecology can benefit women most, because it is they who encounter most difficulties in accessing external inputs or subsidies. But their ability to benefit should not be treated as automatic; it requires that affirmative action directed specifically towards women be taken. E. Organizing markets 42. In previous reports, the Special Rapporteur has insisted on the need to facilitate the ability of small-scale farmers to join supply chains.85 Farmers should also be encouraged to move up the value chain by adding value to raw products through assuming increased roles in packaging, processing, and marketing their produce. Cooperatives can help them achieve economies of scale to facilitate adding value.86 This can also be supported by novel types of partnerships with the private sector. However, improved access to markets is essential if this is to happen. Better access to markets requires the development of communication routes, particularly rural feeder roads. The marginal returns to public spending on feeder roads for agriculture output and poverty reduction has been estimated to be “three to four times larger than the return to public spending on murram and tarmac roads.”87 In addition, support for agroecological practices will fail to achieve the desired results if markets are not organized to protect farmers from volatile prices and the dumping of subsidized products on 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 Michel Pimbert et al., Democratising Agricultural Research for Food Sovereignty in West Africa, Bamako/London, IIED and others, 2010. Jules Pretty and Norman Uphoff, “Human dimensions of agroecological development,” in Agroecological innovations. Increasing food production with participatory development, N. Uphoff (ed.), London, Earthscan Publications, 2001, p. 245. Sarah Jewitt, “Unequal Knowledges in Jharkhand, India: De-Romanticizing Women’s Agroecological Expertise,” Development and Change, 31:5, 2000, pp. 961–985. “Women Organising for Change in Agriculture and NRM,” Women Leaders’ Dialogue, 36th session of the Committee on World Food Security, 13 October 2010. See A/HRC/13/33, paras. 28-50. Ibid., para. 31. Samuel Benin et al., “Agricultural Growth and Investment Options for Poverty Reduction in Malawi,” IFPRI Discussion Paper 00794, September 2008, p. 41. 19