Sources of agricultural information for women vegetables farmers : a case of three districts of Herat, Afghanistan | |
| Author | Ghafoori, Sonia |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no.AB-17-03 |
| Subject(s) | Agricultural resources--Afghanistan--Information service Women in agriculture--Afghanistan Vegetables--Afghanistan |
| Note | A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Agribusiness Management |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Series Statement | |
| Abstract | This study investigated sources of agricultural information used by women vegetable farmers in three districts of Herat- Afghanistan. Women farmers constitute the biggest part of farmers growing vegetable in Herat. The Afghanistan government’s goals are to enable women to increase their production for achieving food security, self-sufficiency and agro-based industrialization. However, it is not clear from where women farmers obtain agricultural information, but, knowing this point has motivated government and agricultural organization to direct the new and critical information toward women farmers through those sources. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to identify women vegetable farmers sources of agricultural information. Due to time and funding limitation, the study involved as a survey of 105 women farmers in three districts (Injil, Quzara, Zinda Jan) of Herat province. There are five research objectives which guided this study, namely (i) describe the source of agricultural information for women vegetable growers in Herat- Afghanistan. (ii) examine women vegetable growers access to agricultural information. (iii) examine the utilization of agricultural information in the production cycle on women vegetable growers. (iv) examine the effects of using agricultural information in production cycle on women vegetable farmers (v) to identify the problems of using and not using agricultural information from the various sources. Key findings from this study were as follows: The finding was that extension-workers, fellow farmers and training center, sources of information constituted the first, second and third sources of agricultural information for women vegetable farmers. All farmers had access to agricultural information from at less one sources. The access quality of Radio and TV was bad and less in some areas, so it is suggested to improve and fix it even the language of some programs was unclear for some farmers, mentioned to make programs with local languages in the same areas. As most of the women farmers were interested in women extension workers, so there may be a need to recruit more females into the service. Another finding from this study is that, (88.6%) of the farmers used agricultural information on their vegetable farms. From the TV programs, Herat agricultural and livestock program show was the best and favorite for almost (60%) of the farmers to get information that they need. The effects of getting information from different sources were positive for (84.9%) of the respondents and it was more about the production yield in the previous year and cultivation method. (65.8%) of the farmers said their production yield have increased in previous year and (63.3%) of them cultivated in new methods. There was not any impressive amount for irrigation method as they did not receive much information about it. Due to these issues suggested to focus more on irrigation and marketing information. The biggest problems of women when they used agricultural information sources are quality of access, unsuitable time and different language of the agricultural programs from the sources. Overall, the study revealed that, women farmers are able to make a significant contribution to agricultural development in Afghanistan. However, they are facing many problems, limitation and challenges like access to the own land and good source of information, social problem, less education and so on. It is important to government and agricultural organization address these concerns and problems. |
| Year | 2017 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development |
| Department | Department of Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources (Former title: Department of Food Agriculture, and BioResources (DFAB)) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Agribusiness Management (AB) |
| Chairperson(s) | Soni, Peeyush, |
| Examination Committee(s) | Kuwornu, John K.M.;Salin, K.R. |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | AFG Western Basins Water Resources Management Project;AIT Fellowship |
| Degree | Thesis (M. Am.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2017 |