ASSESSMENT OF EXTENT OF PARTICIPATION OF RURAL WOMEN IN FARMING ACTIVITIES IN SHIRORO COMMUNITY OF NIGER STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Despite the significant role of women in farming activities to ensure sustainable national agricultural production, individual household’s food security and in improving the quality of life in rural areas, their roles in food production, processing, marketing and distribution is grossly under acknowledged due to social barrier and gender bias. It is against this back drop, the study was conducted to assess the extent of participation of rural women in farming activities in Shiroro Community of Niger State, Nigeria. One hundred and twenty respondents were randomly selected and interviewed in line with the objective of the study. Descriptive statistics and inferential statistical tools were used for data analysis. The findings indicate that young adult women (61.17%) within the age range of 20-40 years are the majority that participated in agricultural activities and majority (60.83%) of the respondents are married. The study revealed that all (100%) of the respondents participated in threshing and harvesting. The farming activities ‘mostly’ participated by respondents are threshing (77.50%), harvesting (75.00%) and seed preparation (70.80%). Inadequacy of agricultural inputs, credit facilities, extension services and poor marketing services limits the extent of participation of rural women in farming activities. The result of probit regression analysis revealed that Socio – economic factors such as age, level of income and years of farming experience has positively influence the extent of participation of rural women in farming activities in the study area. All efforts directed at empowerment of rural women in all field of activity can best be achieved through improvement in access to agricultural inputs, extension advisory services and provision of efficient marketing system.