A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT AND AGRICULTURAL EXTENTION, SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES ARBA MINCH UNIVERSITY

Abstract

Ethiopian rural women make significant contribution to the farm labor. They work in all aspects of agriculture, in addition to active engagement in agriculture; women are responsible for all household chores. However, rural women farmers in Ethiopia including study area rarely participate in extension services and have little contact with extension service providers. Thus, the objective of this research was to assess women farmers’ participation in agricultural extension services in Chencha Woreda. A mixed methods approach was used. Multi-stage sampling technique was employed for the realization of the research objective. Sample respondents were selected by simple random sampling technique on probability proportional to size and primary data were collected from 188rural women farmers. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected from primary and secondary sources. Focus group discussion, key informants interview and personal observations were the major data collection methods. The data were entered in STATA software and organized in tables and figures and further described and analyzed following descriptive statistics and Tobit regression analysis procedure. Marginal effect is used to interpret the effect of explanatory variables on the dependent variables. The study result shows that the level of women farmers’ participation in agricultural extension service in the study area was challenged by delay or untimely provision of extension services, gender blinded extension service delivery, insufficient resources for FTC, less frequency of extension agents contact with rural women, socio-cultural challenges, inadequate literacy rate, non-recognition of women as genuine participant client and limited involvement of different stakeholders in the provision of extension services. The level of women’s participation in agricultural extension services were measured by calculating the score values of the participation index based on the mean score values were categorized in to low (30%), medium (52%) and high (18%) index of participation group. Therefore, it was recommended that the government and other stakeholders have to make the extension service delivery approach more demand driven and multicultural in part. To promote participation, labor saving and women friendly technologies should be disseminated and government better to design legal frameworks through which stakeholders could involve in providing agricultural extensions services in the study area.