Women Farmers’ Participation in Agricultural Extension Activities in Ikwuano L.G.A, Abia State Nigeria
Onuekwusi, Gideon.C
Department of Rural Sociology and Extension, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike
Chukwu, Miriam. C
Department of Rural Sociology and Extension, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike
Keywords: Agricultural Extension, Assessment, Farmers, Participation, Women.
Abstract
The study was aimed at assessing participation of women farmers in agricultural extension activities. A sample size of 150 women farmers, were initially taken for the study but only 110 respondents were analyzed. Simple random sampling technique was used for the sample selection and questionnaire was used to elicit information from the respondents. Both description and inferential statistics were used for data analysis. The results showed that women farmers participated highest in Radio broadcast(4.0), home visit (3.6), crop activities (3.8), farmer educational meeting (3.6), establishing demonstration plots (3.09), method demonstration (3.12), formation of farmer group (3.8) and T.V advertisement (3.7) respectively, while they participated low in activities like reading extension leaflets, newsletter etc. methods of fertilizer application (31%) and planting geometry (28%), ranked the highest in the type of messages disseminated by extension agents. Michael Okara University of Agriculture Umudike (MOUAU), National Root Crop Research Institute (NRCRI) Umudike and friends were the major sources of agricultural information to the women farmers in the study area. The major problems hindering their participation were lack of credit facilities (26.35%), lack of incentives (22.22%) and land tenure system (15.40%). Age, educational level, farm size, household size, household income and farming experiences of the women farmers showed no significant relationship with their level of participation in Agricultural extension activities.