Role of the Rural Women Schools in Raising the Participants Awareness Towards Food Safety, Gezira State, Sudan

Abstract

The role of rural women schools (RWS) in Sudan, mainly focus in the agricultural development, thus contributing to agricultural productivity, farmer incomes increase and improvement of the quality of life in rural areas. Food safety is also a key contributor to agricultural development and food security. Objective of this study is to assess the role of the RWS in raising the women awareness towards food safety in Gezira State, Sudan. Data were collected through a structured, closed ended questionnaire. Questions were designed according to the triple Likert scale. A purposive sample was selected; 54 women were previously participated in the trainers session on food safety in RWS was selected from the study area. On the other hand, 52 women were selected randomly as non-participant women. All data were statistically analyzed with SPSS program. The results of the study revealed that, the awareness level towards food safety among the trained women was moderate, where the average weighted mean of the responses of the respondents to the questionnaire statements was (2.00). On the other hand, the average weighted mean of the responses of the untrained women was a little bit less than trained women, which was (1.85). The t-test statistics indicated that there is no significant difference at 0.05 significance level between the weighted means of the responses of both trainers and un-trainers towards the questions of the study. These findings were rather disappointing because it showed that, the training which done by the RWS was not succeeded in raising the level of awareness as expected. The study recommended that, the content of the training and the teaching methods used should be revised carefully.