Participation of Rural Woman in Forestry Extension Activities (Eastern Galabat Locality - Gedaref State – Sudan)

Abstract

The broad objective of this research was to indicate the contribution of rural woman in forestry extension activities and its impact on knowledge level. Two types of data were collected for this research, namely; primary and secondary data. The primary data was collected from 10% of all the families in three villages (Rashid, Um Rakoba, Al Hamra) of Eastern Galabat locality, who were interviewed. The secondary data was collected from the archives of Forests National Corporation (FNC), various documents relevant to the study, this include books, institutional report, records and papers which provide information for the study. The main findings of the study were that; the rural women played a substantial role in participating into forest programs with the FNC, Non-Governmental organizations (NGOs), Ministry of Agriculture and other institutions which provided environmental and social services in the villages. The level of genuine participation was good as perceived by the entire interviewed sample. Most of the respondents in the three villages belong to Dago, Masaleet and Fur tribes. These tribes have no problem with woman working in agricultural sector beside their domestic work. About 80% of the women questioned were married, and the mean family size was 7 persons, so this indicates the importance for additional women work to increase the family income to meet the basic needs of life. Therefor the women were engaged in agriculture activities as natural practice to produce vegetable crops for their meals and sale part of it to increase their income. The average annual woman income was 7,344 SDG/year, including beside agricultural activities, other activities like handcrafts and housekeeping. The overall educational level among rural women was low; however most of them were members in some local committees such as agricultural, environmental and social committees, beside their participation in forest programs like seedling production, making improve stoves and other activities. Degradation of the forests in the study area as result to many reasons such as overgrazing, illegal cutting and climate change leads to decrease in wood and non-wood forest products and indirectly decrease other crops production that made it important to develop rehabilitation and conservation programs for these natural resources. Most of respondents in the study area were selected as participants in the extension programs, about 80% of the women mentioned that they benefited of these programs. The main conclusion of this study is that; women in the study area have great desire to participate in forestry and development programs. The main constraint confronting the participation of women in these activities was the discontinuity of these programs. The main recommendation drawn from the study; there is an urgent need to develop and conduct additional forest extension programs and to give more rooms for women participation in these programs to increase the welfare of rural societies through increasing family income.