Extent of Rural Women Participation and Decision Making in Seed Production Activities

Abstract

Rural women play a pivotal role in agricultural and rural economies in all developing countries. They play
key roles by working with full passion in production of crops right from the soil preparation till post
harvest activities. The study focused on role of rural women in seed production and their decision making
in Northwest of Amhara region, Ethiopia. Five villages were selected on the basis of their experiences in
seed production and marketing. Fifty married women farmers, ten from each village, were selected by
using simple random sampling technique. Interview schedule was used to obtain information from rural
women on their socio-economic characteristics, their participation in seed production activities and their
role in various decision making areas. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze the data collected.
Result showed that only 14% of the respondents accessed formal trainings on seed production and
management indicated the male domination in benefiting from trainings and extension services. The
result depicted that 98%, 92%, 84%, 82% and 80% of the respondents participated and engaged in
weeding, organic fertilizers preparation, inputs transport to farm, fertilizer applications and harvesting,
respectively. However, their participation was limited on ploughing (14%) and crop protection activities
(34%). The roles of women in final decision making on purchase/sell of farm implements (6%) was quite
minimal. Their extent of participation in decision making for most of seed production activities is limited
only on consultation. Therefore, serious attention and integrated support should be given for rural
women to improve their position in decision making.