Women Farmers’ Attitudes Towards Agricultural Extension Services in Southwestern Nigeria

Abstract

Women farmers play a vital role in food production and food security despite their normal  engagement in domestic chores. However, their access to extension services has not been given adequate  recognition by many interventions .The study examined the women farmers’ attitudes towards  agricultural extension services in southwestern Nigeria. A multi-stage sampling design was used to select  120 women farmers from Osun and Ondo states while Pearson correlation and Chi-square were used for
data analysis. Results indicate that majority (62.5%) of the women farmers were within active age 36-50  years of age, married (72.5%) and received information friends and neighbors (88.3%) and almost half  (40.8%) had 11 to 15 years of farming experience. The result shows that women farmers were provided  with less extension services as 49.2% had contact with extension agents once in a year. The majority  (92.2%) of the respondents ranked bad road network as the major constraints facing extension services  in the study area followed by male extension worker preference for male farmers (83.3%). Almost half
of the respondent (45.0%) ranked lack of transportation as third most critical constraint while a minority  (5.0%) ranked irregular service delivery. There was a significant relationship between the women  farmers’ attitude towards extension services rendered and their assessment of effectiveness of services (r  =0.214). It is recommended that government should improve on rural infrastructures like road and provide incentives for extension agencies and agents to increase the effectiveness of the extension services delivery in improving the livelihood of the poor farmers.