TRAINING NEEDS OF RURAL WOMEN ON LIVESTOCK MANAGEMENT IN NIGER STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Rural women face barriers in accessing training as a result of low literacy levels, domestic obligations and gender biasness of training that is targeted primarily at men. The research is design to assess the training needs of rural women on livestock management in Niger State, Nigeria. To achieve the study objectives, multi – stage random sampling technique was used to select 117 respondents from fourteen (14) rural areas. Interview schedule was used to elicit data from the respondents. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics and mean score to identify the areas of training needs of rural women on livestock management in the study area. The result shows that majority (75.20%) of the respondents were in the active age bracket of between 21- 40 years with low level of literacy and extension service delivery. The major livestock management activities undertaken by the respondents were feeding and watering of livestock (89.74%), cleaning and maintenance of livestock sheds (82.91%) and construction of livestock sheds (67.52%). The priority areas of training needs with high mean score were how to identify sick animals (3.94), how to identify symptoms of common diseases (3.84), how to treat common animal diseases (3.83) and how to select good breeds of livestock (3.76). The major constraints experienced by rural women on livestock managements includes inadequate extension service on livestock management (88.90%), inadequate access to credit facilities (88.90%), gender barrier (84.60%), inadequate capital (83.80%) and inadequate information on livestock management practices (80.30%). The involvement of female extension staffs in conducting training for rural women on livestock management will help in checking the discriminations due to gender barrier and religious discrimination to provide maximum education opportunities to rural women regarding livestock production and management strategies.