Decision-making authority of women in adopting extension-recommended agricultural technologies
Makaleler > Tam Makale · 2024
Yazarlar: Meryem Aydin Celik, Burak Ozkan Yildiz
International Journal of Agriculture Extension and Social Development, Uluslararası, 2024, cilt 7, ss 192-195
DOI: 10.33545/26180723.2024.v7.i10c.3068
Özet
In a village outside Izmir, a woman farmer described her situation plainly: she attended the extension training, she understood the new technique, she wanted to adopt it—but the decision wasn’t hers to make. This research examined decision-making authority patterns among 286 women farmers regarding extension-recommended agricultural technologies across Izmir and Manisa Provinces, Turkey. A cross-sectional survey with a gender-disaggregated decision-making matrix was conducted from March to October 2022. Women held sole decision-making authority over only 23.8% of technology adoption choices, with post-harvest handling (score 4.1/5) and seed selection (3.8) showing the highest female autonomy. Irrigation and pest management decisions remained overwhelmingly male-controlled. Extension participation was the strongest predictor of women’s decision authority (? = 0.34, p<0.001), followed by education level (? = 0.28) and income contribution (? = 0.21). Patriarchal norms (? = -0.31) were the strongest constraining factor. These findings suggest extension programs should actively create decision-making spaces for women rather than assuming knowledge transfer alone will enable adoption.