Women Farmers’ Agricultural Information Needs and Food Production: A Case of Imbulpe ds Division in Sri Lanka

The study was conducted to find out the women farmers’ agricultural information needs and their impact on food production, in Imbulpe DS Division in Sri Lanka. Out of the women farmers of the area, 238 were taken as the sample for the study from seven selected Grama Niladhari (GN) divisions of the area. Women farmers were selected by using simple random sampling method from purposively selected seven GN divisions of the study area. Pre-tested, interviewer-administered questionnaire survey was used as the primary data collection method from March to July 2019. Data analysis was done by using descriptive statistics and chi-square analysis. The result revealed that, majority (62.6%) of the respondents were within the middle ages (40-59 years), married, and belongs to the families with 4-5 members. Most of the respondents (64.3 %) have studied up to junior secondary education level. The average farm land size is 0.84 acres and they have farming experience of about 15 years. Most of the respondents mentioned that, they obtained higher level of information needs about improved crop varieties. In addition to that, women farmers reported that they moderately need information on application of agrochemicals, improved market systems and modern farming technologies. Extension agents and fellow women farmers act as their major sources of agricultural information and ICT equipment act as the least important agricultural information source in this area. Moreover, there is a significant positive association between the agricultural information needs and food production. Therefore, providing necessary agricultural information, enhance utilization of ICT tools for the agricultural information sources of the study area and encourage women farmer participation for the farming societies will lead to enhance the food production in this area.