Rural Women’s Awareness on Agricultural Extension Services: a case study on Manikgonj district in Bangladesh

Abstract

The major purpose of this paper was to have an understanding on rural women's awareness on agricultural extension services. Furthermore, the study aimed at exploring relationships between the selected characteristics of the rural women and their awareness on agricultural extension services. The study was conducted in a village of Singier upazila,Manikgonj and 125 rural women were selected as sample from the list of 502 housewives of the village. Data were collected from the selected rural women through using a pre-tested structured personal interview schedule during 16-28 February 2014. The majority of the rural women (56 percent) had medium awareness on agricultural extension activities, while 43 percent and only one percent had high and low awareness, respectively. Education, cosmopoliteness and extension contact of the rural women were positively correlated with their awareness on agricultural extension services, while family size was negatively correlated with their awareness. The rest of the variables, namely age, training exposure. Participation in farming activities, social participation, and role in decision making of the rural women showed no relationship with their awareness on agricultural extension services.