Abstract:
This study deals with assessment on gender division of labor in farming activities. It was
conducted in three randomly selected kebeles in West Denbya woreda. A total of 204 households
were selected assample using cluster and subsequent lottery sampling technique by considering
proportional to size of each kebele. Structured questionnaire, Interview and focus group
discussions were used to collect quantitative and qualitative primary data. The quantitative data
was analyzed using descriptive statistics. Descriptive statistics such as mean, frequencies, one sample t-test and graphs were employed. Whereas qualitative data interpretation such as
narration was employed to analyze the qualitative data collected through the open-ended
questions. Qualitative data was described, interpreted and set using narration. The analysishas
revealed the fact that women were less educated and relatively poor in endowment of crucial
resources such as land, crop and labor, while they were better access and control over resources
and benefits, whereas productive resources and benefits were vested on the male households.
Though women have a vital role to play in crops production, they were not as such considered
as farmers and their contribution is undermined by communities, thus women in particular had
no contact with the development agents and access to formal sources of credit and improved
technologies was very limited. Based on the above findings, it is recommended that, improve the
attitudes of societies towards womens’ participation in farming activities, gender equality
awareness creation training should be provided for farm households. Female farm households
should be involved in decision making process that has the potential to introduce structural
changes. Appropriate facilities should be provided to rural women for land, agricultural and
livestock extension services. Financial institutions should provide financial credit to households
to help them fulfill their agricultural in puts.
