Perception Needs of Women Farmers in Agricultural Extension Services in Tigray, Northern Ethiopia

Abstract

The objectives of the study were to examine: (i) perception needs of women farmers regarding agricultural extension services in Tigray, northern Ethiopia; (ii) factors affecting their needs in the extension services; and (iii) appropriate recommended extension content and methods to reach their potentials and needs. The study was conducted in four administrative zones including Western, Central, Eastern and Southern of Tigray, northern Ethiopia. Stratified multi-stage technique was used to obtain data from four zones. From each district (WEREDA), six extension centers, and twelve villages (KUSHETS) were selected as study sites. From these sites, 311 women farmers were randomly selected for the data collection. A structured interview schedule was used to collect data from the respondents. The main statistical analyses in this research were percentage, arithmetic means, and Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient. Women farmers' perception needs regarding the content of agricultural extension were the highest in land preparation, specifically plowing using oxen, handicraft and horticulture. The preference on extension method was home visit only. Hypothesis testing, it indicated that the less membership needed more home visit and extension content in plowing using oxen. There were more negative relation between almost of all extension methods with the needs of extension content, because most of the activities in extension contents are done at field level, which is far away from women farmers where most of their time spent (in the vicinity of their house). To effectively reach women farmers, the following recommendations are given: (1) increase contact with women farmers by changing criteria for contact farmers from male heads of household only, to individual active farmers so that women farmers can be included; (2) set the time of the extension messages to be delivered, the location of the program to be conducted, and day of activities to be done to suit women's schedules as much as possible; (3) establish women training centers with necessary facilities; (4) consider separate group for women farmers, such as existing groups; (5) before conducting training sessions, gender analysis of the farming system should be conducted; (6) concentrate on the content of plowing, handicrafts, and horticulture and (7) use home visit for the less membership household (7.1) More home visit is appropriate for the perception course in handicrafts, poultry, and irrigation content, (7.2) More farm visit is appropriate for the perception course in plowing using oxen, and animal science, (7.3) More group contact is appropriate for the perception course in horticulture, and animal husbandry,