Haile, F. (2016) ‘Factors Affecting Women Farmers’ Participation In Agricultural Extension Services For Improving The Production In Rural District Of Dendi West Shoa Zone, Ethiopia’, International Journal of Research in Applied, 4(7), pp. 133–148.
The author commenced with elaborating the role of Agricultural extension for the national economy role played by women. Accordingly, though women contribute to national agricultural output and family food security, the agricultural extension services have been largely designed, crafted, and implemented with the male head of the household as the intended client, and failed to recognise that women are active, productive, engaged economic agents with their own financial needs and constraints. In Ethiopia agricultural extension service covers wide ranging sectors whereby 85% of the population earn their income from it, 50% of the export is from the sector and it contributes 50% to Gross Domestic Products (GDP). Though women engage in the agricultural activity intensively, there is a common connotation that ‘women don’t farm’. Non recognition of women contribution in farming resulted in limiting women;s access to farmland, control over agricultural products, credit facilities, extension services and information and generally decision making in relation to agricultural productivity.
With a primary goal of determining the level of women farmers’ participation in agricultural extension service, the author employed a mixed research approach of qualitative and quantitative approach. multistage sampling was used to select the study area and study participants. Accordingly, 120 rural women were selected and participated in the study.
According to the finding, among various determinants, education is found to be one of the factors influencing women’s access to agricultural extension services. Higher levels of education of farmers are found to be increasing their ability to use agriculture related technologies better. The low level of educational literacy among female-headed households negatively influenced their participation in agricultural extension services that could have improved their agricultural productivity. The study revealed that household income increases with the use of improved seed for both female and male headed households. Thus there is a need for agricultural extension services to focus on increased use of improved seeds for female-headed households so as to increase their agricultural production. Lack of access to professional extension agents is also found to be one of the factors that affect women’s productivity in agricultural extension services.
Finally, the author recommended that the Government shall provide farmer women the required farm inputs and incentives. New farming implements should be made affordable and available to the women. As lack of education is found to be the primary factor that affects women’s farming productivity, the author argued that Women adult literacy education programmes shall be provided to help women farmers acquire basic skills and abilities to seek and receive agricultural information through extension agents.