This descriptive cross-sectional survey examined faculty publication productivity at Jigjiga University, Ethiopia. It, specifically, aimed at exploring the factors and barriers that may influence publication productivity among academic staffs while also comparing variations across academic disciplines. The survey employed self-administered questionnaire distributed to 120 faculties randomly selected from nine academic disciplines during February to April 2016. This observation indicated that only 38.3% of the academic faculty members have published a research work since joining Jigjiga University. Publication of journal articles was the predominant type of publication outlet (58.7%) followed by conference proceedings (13%). The analysis result indicated that there was statistically significant (p<0.05) variation in publication productivity in relation to years in academic profession, highest degree earned and academic rank of the respondents. Similarly, faculty members who had track records on research grant winning, theses supervision as well as attending academic conferences and research related trainings were more likely to publish (p<0.05) as against those who did not have such experiences. However, there was no statistically significant difference (p>0.05) in publication productivity in relation to sex, age, teaching load and involvement in administrative activities. In addition, significant variation (p<0.05) existed on publication productivity across academic disciplines. Faculties in the natural and life science fields generally appeared to publish more than those in the social sciences. Respondents cited several factors that can be implicated in the low prevalence of publication productivity at Jigjiga University. The most cited barriers in order of higher frequency include lack of recognition such as promotion, absence of institutional research journal, poor access to information sources such as internet connectivity, insufficient research facilities, lack of financial incentives, lack of institutional/department support on publication, high publication charges inquired by journals, and poor research and publication atmosphere which were agreed upon by about 75% of the respondents. Most of these obstacles were organizational in nature, and thus focus to improve research productivity should consider tackling these factors at institutional level. Therefore, results of this survey imply that understanding these inhibitory factors and designing appropriate intervention strategy may help Jigjiga University towards improving the research and publication productivity of its academic faculty members.

The study analysed determinants of adoption of improved sorghum package between male-headed and female-headed households. The specific objectives were to analyse adoption differentials of improved sorghum package, and to identify factors that affect adoption decision of improved sorghum package by male and female-headed households. Purposeful sampling method was employed to select Woreda of sorghum growers with greater number of female-headed households with the aim to involve the required number for the analysis. A multi-stage stratified random sampling technique was used to select four PAs out of 23 PAs in the Woreda and households to be interviewed were derived proportionally to the size of the number of household in each PAs. Cross-sectional research design was applied to collect data from a total of 180 respondents in this study whereby 90 were femaleheaded and 90 were male-headed households. Pre-tested structured interview questionnaire was used for collecting the essential quantitative data. The Logistic Regression model results revealed that the adoption of improved sorghum package is biased by gender, where Female-Headed Households adopt the package relatively less. Regarding factors affecting adoption decision, non-farm activity had a significant and positive influence on the adoption decision of improved sorghum package, whereas distance to market had a significant and negative influence on the adoption decision for Male-Headed Household. Extension contact, family active labour force, attitude toward sorghum package had a significant and positive influence on adoption decision of Female Headed Household, whereas cosmopoliteness influences negatively. Therefore, policy should address gender disparities in extension services and access to resources that exist because of socio-cultural and institutional factors limiting the adoption of technologies for Female Headed Household. Thus, enhancing efficient delivery of extension with due consideration of the participation of female headed household would improve the livelihood of the households.

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