FARMERS’ ACCESS TO AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION SERVICES IN AWEDAY RURAL KEBELES, EASTERN HARARGHE ZONE, OROMIA NATIONAL REGIONAL STATE, ETHIOPIA

Farmers face a continued challenge in accessing agricultural information and technologies due to several economic, social, cultural and environmental factors. This study set out to assess Farmers’ Access to Agricultural Extension Services in Aweday Rural Kebeles. The specific objectives were to assess the status of farmers’ access to agricultural extension services and to evaluate the factors that influence their access to agricultural extension services in Aweday. The sampling was done in two stages. In the first stage, three kebeles were xv purposively selected based on the farming systems (kchat dominant, cereal dominant and mixed farming system). In the second stage, 120 samples were selected from each sample kebele proportionally to the size of the households. Interview and three focus group discussion were used to collect data. Descriptive statistics frequency, percentage and binary logistic regression model were used for analyzing the data. Among the 120 respondents, 51 of them had access to agricultural extension services while the remaining 69 did not have access to agricultural extension services. Majority, 78 (65.0%) of the respondents were males and the remaining 42 (35.0%) of them were females. The mean age of respondents who had and did not have access to agricultural extension services was 32.86 years and 32.14 years respectively. Average family size of those respondents who had and did not have access to agricultural extension services was 7.06 and 6.01 respectively. The model result indicated that age of respondents, education level, farm size, income generating activity and attitude towards agricultural extension workers were the significant variables affecting farmers’ access to agricultural extension services. The elder households were familiar with the overall agricultural extension services and the systems that were being implemented for many years. As a result, it is important to have the elder and religious people to be involved in the delivery of agricultural extension services in the area. The higher the education level of household heads, their tendency to understand, search and use agricultural extension services for their agricultural production increases. Strengthening educational capacity of whole community and arranging a way of access to adult education should be designed. The larger size of cultivated land a farmer has, then the interest and effort to cultivate from the land and get more products could grow. So, on-farm support and guidance for the farmers in the study area is important. The participation of farmers in income generating activities helps to increase their access to agricultural extension services. The attitude of farmers about the personality, performance and other aspects of the development agent is a basic factor for farmers to access agricultural extension services. Equipping the development agents with sufficient awareness and knowledge to serve the community and using feedbacks from farmers to improve the services is important.