Abstract:
Evidence shows that agricultural extension is one of the institutional services that have a central
role in the transformation process of the agricultural sector. Women account for 50 percent of the
population and are the main workforce in most rural Ethiopia where its economy depends on
agriculture. However, women have limited access to agricultural extension services in Ethiopia in
general and in the East Harghe zone in particular. This study intended to assess the status and
determinants of women's participation in accessing agricultural extension services in vegetable
production. The study used multi-stage techniques, combining probability and non-probability
samplings to select households. The purposively selected Haramaya Woreda has 33 rural kebeles,
stratified into 28 irrigable and 5 non-irrigable kebeles among four such as Damota, Maya lemon,
kurro, and sharif-kalid were randomly selected from the irrigable ones for this study; 123 sample
households were determined by Yamane formula and they are randomly selected based on each
kebele’s population proportion to size. Primary data was collected from sample farmers through
structured interviews and focused group discussions. The descriptive statistics analysis result
shows that about 46.6% of households had access to agricultural extension service (AES) whereas
53.4% didn’t have access to the same. The Chi-square and t-test were employed to analyze the
existence of explanatory variables' influence on the dependent variables and the logit econometric
model was used to identify determinants of women's access to AES. Its regression result revealed
that sampled households’ education level, family size, total annual farm income, participation in
community affairs and women's association, and access to credit were positive while only age
negatively and significantly affected women’s access to AES in their vegetable production in the
study area. Therefore, kebele and district level and relevant public and NGO agricultural
institutions should enhance the determinant factors to improve women farm households’ access to
agricultural extension services in the study area and the region in general.
