Problems Related to Participating in Farmer Field School Training Session in Gabiley District in Somaliland

Abstract

Farmer Field Schools (FFS) play a crucial role in enhancing agricultural knowledge, productivity, and rural development. However, several challenges hinder their effectiveness. The study was conducted to identify and describe the problem confrontation of FFS farmers in participating FFS training sessions. Data and information were collected from 150 farmer field school (FFS) farmers of selected four villages, Kidiga-dhanaan, Agabar, Butuji and Geesdheere in Gabiley district under the Maroodi-jeh region in Somaliland. The questionnaire was designed to gather information from the farmers. The data was analyzed with the help of SPSS software using frequency, percentage, means and standard deviation. The study has shown that 61.0% of the respondents were male, with a significant proportion (41%) aged between 26 and 35 years. Marital status data indicate that 68% of the respondents are married, and engagement in farmer field schools (FFS) is mainly moderate, with 68% participating for 3–4 years. Among fifteen selected problems “Lack of Funding of FFs” got the highest score (PCI- 439), followed by “ Limited access to agricultural inputs include seeds, farm tools and fertilizers” (PCI- 425), “Inadequate trails and training materials” (PCI- 421), “Gradual reduction of the members in training sessions” (PCI- 419), “ Lack of active participation of female beneficiaries in the FFS sessions” (PCI- 406).  “Conflict among FFS Members” got the lowest score (PCI-205). The highest proportion of the FFS farmers (66.7%) had high problems in participating FFS training session, while 20.0 % and 13.3% had medium and low problems, respectively.