Knowledge and Application Gap of Rural Women in the field of reducing household food waste in Fayoum Governorate

The research aimed to identify the characteristics of rural women respondents, determine respondents level of Knowledge and application of the recommendation for reducing household food waste in the stages of purchasing, preparing and cooking, preserving and storing food, identifying the knowledge and application gap with regard to the recommendations for reducing food waste, determine the effect of respondents characteristics on the degree of knowledge and application gap, and finally suggest an extension action plan to develop rural women^'s knowledge and practices to reduce household food waste.
Researched was conducted in three districts Fayoum governorate, according of families number, which were, Fayoum, Etsa and Snorres.  Three village were randomly selected one from each district, A random sample was selected that was estimated using Kargesi and Morgan equation, consisting of 297 housewives.
Findings showed that the total level of respondents knowledge about the recommendations to reduce food waste was average, as it was mentioned by 71%, compared to only 7.1% for those with a high level of knowledge of these recommendations. The gap size between the current knowledge of the respondents and what should be known regarding recommendations to reduce household food waste was 33.6%. as for the overall of application of the recommendations to reduce household food waste, the results showed that more than half of the respondents (58.9%) fall into the category average of applied level, compared to only 11.1% who fall into the high category of applied level, the gap size between the respondents^, current implementation of the recommendations and what should be applied regarding the recommendations to reduce household food waste was 45.7%.   The finding indicated that the aspiration level, exposure to the information sources, and openness to the outside world together contribute by 43.6% in explaining the variance in the degree of knowledge gap for the respondents related to the recommendations of reducing food waste, while the variables of the aspiration level and exposure to information sources, the number of years of education of the respondents, and the level of income, together contributed by 30.7% in explaining the variance in the degree of application gap for respondents.