Abstract:
In Ethiopia the farmer training establishes and led by its national manuals to provide a solution
for the problem of human capital and low level of agricultural production through provision
training by showing demonstrations’. The trainings have been executed in farmer training
centers. Due to that farmers training centers are constructed in every kebele. This paper
examines status of Farmers training centers and factors affecting farmers’ willingness to
participate in farmer training center in Dangila district. The study design was cross-sectional
and data was collected from a sample of 203 farmers out of 3828 households, 9 Development
Agents and 8 the district extension department office workers. The researchers employed a
binary logistic regression model, descriptive statistics such as frequency counts, and percentages
to analyze the data. The data was analyzed using Stata Version 14 software. The finding shows
that the status of farmer training center was poor because it’s highly influenced by budget,
infrastructure and facility, lack of sufficient demonstration cite, lack of committed organized
body who manage the institution, lack of innovation and lack of training for the Developments.
Willingness to participation in Farmers training centers was found to be influenced by age,
gender, education, distance to the Farmer Training Center, farmers experience,
incentive/motivation to farmers and method of training. The findings revealed that age, farmer
experience and distance to the extension office have negative influence on willingness of farmers
to participate in Farmer Training. Education, method of training, gender and
incentive/motivation given to farmers have positive and significant on willingness of farmers to
participate in Farmers training centers. Therefore, Farmers training centers should equipped by
the required facilities, and Development Agents should develop their abilities before provision of
training for farmers. The concerned body starting from Development Agents up to the federal
level should prepare the regular monitoring and evaluation program to identify the gapes of
training.
Key words; status, willingness, cross-sectional study design, farming skill, logistic regression
model