CEDAW/C/GC/34 (j) On-the-job training is tailored and targeted to rural women’s professional needs, and rural women have equal access to technical and vocational education and skills training, such as on sustainable farming practices, animal health and improved husbandry. 44. In addition to training and education, article 14, paragraph 2 (d), also provides that rural women shall be able to benefit from community and extension services, which play an important role in education for farmers, farm productivity and women’s economic empowerment. Those services often do not respond effectively to rural women’s priorities, capacities and needs, and insufficiently promote their access to technical knowledge. 45. States parties should improve the design and delivery of high-quality agricultural extension and rural advisory services, recognizing women as farmers and clients. Such services should ensure that male and female extension and rural advisory service staff have expertise in gender-responsive programme design and delivery and are regularly trained on women’s rights, gender equality, gender analysis and gender-responsive programming. States parties should adopt, implement and regularly monitor and evaluate gender-responsive agricultural extension and rural advisory policies and programmes. 46. States parties should promote rural women’s representation in agricultural extension services by employing a greater number of women as extension and advisory staff, and ensure that organizational policies are supportive of the rights, needs and aspirations of women. States parties should also increase the proportion of educational content provided through extension services that is relevant to rural women by employing additional female scientists in agricultural research. 47. States parties should specifically promote rural women’s access to technical knowledge on food harvesting techniques, preservation, storage, processing, packaging, marketing and entrepreneurship. E. Employment (art. 14, para. 2 (e), read alongside art. 11) 48. Rural women have limited paid employment opportunities and tend to work extremely long hours in low-skilled, part-time, seasonal, low-paid or unpaid jobs, home-based activities and subsistence farming. They are disproportionately represented in the informal sector, uncovered by social protection. Unequal access to income diversification opportunities often results in rural women being poorer than rural men. 49. Rural women are overrepresented among agricultural workers in many regions, exposing them to increased health risks linked to the improper and extensive use of fertilizers and pesticides by various actors, resulting in illnesses, early deaths, pregnancy complications, fetal disorders and physical and developmental disorders in infants and children. Those risks are compounded by their underrepresentation in agricultural cooperatives, farmers ’ and producers’ organizations, land administration and rural workers’ organizations, and their limited access to extension services. 14/25 16-03601