An assessment of factors affecting access to extension services by smallholder farmers in Kisoro District, Uganda

Abstract

Extension services contribute to increased agricultural productivity and profitability through increasing farmer’s knowledge about better agronomic techniques and skills to increase production. This study focused on the factors that affect access to extension services in Kisoro district, Uganda. The objectives of the study were to characterize the farmers according to access to extension services and to determine the factors that influence access to extension services. Secondary data were used in this study. This was collected from 179 farm households in Kisoro district. The data were analyzed using STATA. The results revealed that factors such as gender of the household and level of education influence farmer’s access to extension services. The main challenge was long distance to extension offices and limited number of extension service providers that affected farmer’s access to extension services. The study recommends that farmer groups for both female and male farmers should be formed to increase access to extension services because programs that disseminate extension services are more likely to approach groups first and members of these groups are more likely to access services than those that are not members in any farmer group.