i
WOMEN LABOUR UTILIZATION IN CROP PRODUCTION IN ABIA STATE, NIGERIA
BY
EZEIBE, ADAKU BRIDGET CHIDI, REG NO: PG/Ph.D/03/34765
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS FACULTY OF AGRICULTURE UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA, NSUKKA
SEPTEMBER, 2012
i
WOMEN LABOUR UTILIZATION IN CROP PRODUCTION IN ABIA STATE, NIGERIA
BY
EZEIBE, ADAKU BRIDGET CHIDI, REG NO: PG/Ph.D/03/34765
A THESIS SUBMITTEDTO THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS, UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA, NSUKKA, FOR THE AWARD OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (Ph.D) DEGREE IN AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS
SEPTEMBER, 2012
ii CERTIFICATION
Ezeibe, Adaku Bridget Chidi a Postgraduate student in the Department of Agricultural Economics with Registration Number PG/Ph.D/03/34765 has satisfactorily completed the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D) in Agricultural Economics. The work embodied in this thesis is original and has not been submitted in partial or full for any other diploma or degree of this or any other University.
Prof. E.C. Okorji Supervisor Date:________
Prof. S.A.N.D. Chidebelu Supervisor Date: __________
Prof. E.C. Okorji Head of Department Date: __________
Prof. S. O. C. Ugwu Dean of Faculty Date: ___________
External Examiner Date____________
iii DEDICATION
To Jehovah Ebenezer – my helper.
iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This work could have come to nothing if not for the financial and moral support of people most of whom I wish to acknowledge briefly. To them I remain greatly indebted. I give thanks and praise to God Almighty for His guidance throughout the course of this work. Truly, He is my Ebenezer (my helper). Prof. E.C. Okorji made the dream of completing this work a reality. As both my supervisor and Head of Department, he is very humane and ready to help and generous in impacting knowledge to people. His enduring patience and sense of commitment proved an invaluable source of inspiration and provided a conducive atmosphere for completing this work. My special gratitude goes to my other supervisor, Prof. S.A.N.D. Chidebelu for his unalloyed guidance despite his very tight schedule. I appreciate his concern, advice, pains and time sacrificed to read the various drafts. Words cannot express my gratitude to my lecturers especially Prof. C. J. Arene, Prof. N.J. Nweze, Prof. E.C. Nwagbo, Dr. F.U. Agbo, Mr. N.P.I. Njepuome, Dr. A.A. Enete, Prof. (Mrs) A.I. Achike and others, I say thank you for your support, probing, constructive criticism and invaluable suggestions for improvement of the proposal and findings. I lack words to thank Dr. M. Mkpado who analyzed the data of the report. Mr. NwaJesus Onyekuru for his helping hand and Chinyere Eze for always being there for me. Worthy of great mention is my parents Elder and Deaconess Chidiadi George, my siblings, Precious, Gold, Kelechi, Uzoma, Amara and Nkechi whose love renewed my strength during this work. I cannot find appropriate terms to express my gratitude to my children, Chi-Chi, Chinwe, Noonoo and Chiamy for the joy, hope and happiness they gave me. I am also grateful to my colleagues in CEDR, especially late Mr. G. O. Odigbo, and friends and those who for want of space I am not able to mention here, May God grant you all abundant grace in a special way. Once again, I say all glory be ascribed unto Jehovah ‘overdo’ who fetches water with a basket in order to disgrace the bucket. A.B.C. Ezeibe Agric. Econs. UNN January 2012
v TABLE OF CONTENT Title Page
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Certification -
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Dedication
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Acknowledgement
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Table of contents
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List of tables -
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List of figures -
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Abstract
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CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1.1
Background Information
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Statement of Problem -
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Objectives of the Study
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Research Hypotheses -
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Justifications for the Study: -
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Limitation of the Study
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Plan of the Report
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CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF LITERATURE 2.1
Introduction
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The Role of Women in Agriculture -
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2.2.1
Role of Women in Rural Development
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Role of Women in Food Crop Production
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Women in Forestry/Environment
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2.2.4
Women in Livestock Production
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Women in Post harvest Activities
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Labour as a Factor of Agricultural Production
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Sources of Agricultural Labour
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Family Labour -
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Hired or Wage Labour
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Communal Labour
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Women as Sources of Agricultural Labour
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Factors Affecting Agricultural Labour
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Factors Affecting Agricultural Production and their Implications for Women Farmers -
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Constraints to Women Agricultural Production Efforts -
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2.8.1
Land Tenure System -
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Lack of Improved Technology
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Lack of Credit
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Lack of Extension Services
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Strategies Towards Enhancing the Performance of Women Farmers in Crop Production -
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Theoretical; Framework
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2.10.1 The Concept of Participation in Agricultural Development Programmes
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2.10.2 Participatory Models -
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2.10.2.1 The Transfer of Technology Model (TOT) -
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2.10.2.2 Ministry/Conventional General Extension (Colonial Model)
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2.10.2.3 The Participatory Development Models
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Analytical Framework
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2.11.1 Multiple Regression Analysis
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2.11.2 Multinomial Logit Models
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2.11.3 The t-test
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2.11.4 Likert Rating Scale Technique
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CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1
The Study Area
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Sampling Procedure
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Data Collection
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Data Analysis
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Model Specification -
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Student t-test -
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Multinomial logit model
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Multiple Regression -
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Likert Scale Rating Technique
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vii CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 4.1
Socio - economic Characteristics of Women Respondents
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4.1.1
Age of Women Respondent -
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Marital Status of Women Respondents
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Primary and Secondary Occupations of Respondents
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Educational Attainment of Women Respondents
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4.1.5
Farming experience of Women Farmers
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4.1.6
Farm Size
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Distance of Farm from Home -
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Annual Income of the Women Respondents -
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4.1.9
Household Size
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Specific Crop Production Operations that Utilize Women Labour in the Study Area -
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Men and Women Labour at Different Levels of Crop Production Operations in the Study Area -
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Factors Affecting Women Participation in Farm Operations -
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Socio-economic Characteristics Affecting the Labour Utilization of Women in Different Farm Operations -
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Effects of Women Labour Utilization on Farmers’ Total Output/Revenue -
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Farm Constraints
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Reasons why previous intervention measure did not achieve much success -
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CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 5.1
Summary
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Conclusion
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Recommendations
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Contribution to Knowledge
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Suggestion for Further Research
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References
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Appendix – Questionnaire
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viii LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1 Percentage of total labour in hours between men and women in Africa -
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Percentage contribution of African women to family Livelihood
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Gender daily hourly contribution on Agricultural and Non Agricultural Activity -
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The frequency distribution of women farmers by age
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The frequency distribution of respondents according to marital status
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The frequency distribution of respondent according to status in farming
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The frequency distribution of respondents according to secondary occupation -
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The frequency distribution of respondents according to formal education attained --
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The frequency distribution of respondents according to years of farming experience --
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The frequency distribution of respondents according to farm size
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The frequency distribution of respondents according to farm distance
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The frequency distribution of respondents according to annual income
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The frequency distribution of respondents according to proportion of income derived from crop production-
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Percentage distribution of respondents according to household size -
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Percentage distribution of crop production operations and labour use
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The mean values of hours spent by men and women respondents in different levels of crop production-
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Result of Multinomial Logit Model Analysis of Women Participation in Different Crop Farm Operation -
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Estimates of the determinants of output for women labour utilization
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Distribution of respondents according to farm constraints identified-
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Distribution of respondents according to participation in extension and rural development programmes -
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Reasons why previous strategy did not work -
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4.1
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4.5: 4.6
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LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: The dualistic nature of women’s role in the economy in general and agriculture and food security in particular -
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Figure 2: Transfer of Technology Model (TOT)
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Figure 3: Participatory Development Model -
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xxi ABSTRACT
The main aim of the study was to analyze women labour utilization in crop production in Abia State. The specific objectives included (i) identify specific farming operations that utilize women labour in the study area; (ii) compare the relative contribution of women and men to total labour utilization in different levels of farm operation in the study area; (iii) identify factors that affect the participation of women in different levels of farm operations; (iv) determine the effect of women labour utilization on the value of farm output ; and (v) identify and analyze the constraints facing women farmers in crop production in the study area. Using multi-stage sampling technique, the study area was zoned into three using the existing zoning arrangement of the Abia State Agricultural Development Programme (ADP). Nine (9) rural Local Government Areas (LGA) were randomly selected from the Zones. From the LGAs, 18 communities were randomly selected and from the communities, 36 villages were randomly selected. From these villages, 108 households having women farmers were randomly selected. A set of structured questionnaire was administered on the relevant women and men farmers in the household to obtain required information. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, multiple regression analysis, t-test, likert rating scale and multinomial logit model. Results showed that among twelve crop production operations identified in 2010 farming season, greater proportion of all the operations were executed by the women farmers e.g. harvesting 70%, planting 63%, weeding 60% and transplanting 58%. The men and hired labour were used for tedious operations like ridging and bush clearing. The multinomial logit result showed that the participation of women belonging to large families were less in clearing and cultivation. Their level of income had a negative relationship with clearing. The multiple regression analysis showed that greater number of variables like age, farm experience and household size were significant and have positive effect on output at 5 % level of significance. The multiple regression analysis showed that the value of Coefficient of determination otherwise known as R-square (R2) was 0.67. Despite the high level of participation of women farmers in crop production, they still face unique constraints which adversely affected their ability to increase food production. The identified problems included lack of finance, lack of improved inputs, lack of storage facilities among others. Poor implementation of agricultural projects and policies, lack of government commitment and intervention programmes not directed to the farmers needs were the major reasons why previous intervention measures did not achieve much success. The study therefore recommended that adequate finance should be provided by government to support women labour requirements. Government should ensure implementation of agricultural programmes by monitoring and evaluating them from the beginning to the end by independent consultants. The problem of illiteracy among rural women can be overcome if extension services extend their training to the rural women.
1 CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION
1.1
BACKGROUND INFORMATION Nigeria at the moment is witnessing an upward trend in the price of foodstuffs partly
due to the inability of production to keep pace with increase in demand. Demand itself increases largely as a result of increase in population. The resulting effect of this imbalance between demand for and supply of food is malnutrition, poverty and deteriorating living conditions (Nnadozie and Ibe, 2000). This is mainly because agriculture is being neglected and, sometimes, down played in development strategies. Agriculture is one of the main pillars of the Nigerian economy because it plays many roles. It is a major source of food to the population, it provides employment for over 70 to 80 percent of the population and it is the only thriving economic activity in rural areas. It contributes foreign exchange as well as a source of industrial raw materials for the nation’s industries (Amanze, 2000). However, with the oil boom in the seventies, there was a sharp decline in agricultural production as people’s attention was diverted from agriculture to the oil sector of the economy. The “oil boom” also rendered many indigenous land owners landless and, in some cases, a reduction in the hectare farmed. There was rural-urban movement because of lack of social amenities in the rural areas. Many able bodied men moved to the urban centres in search of white-collar jobs because of the income disparity and availability of amenities in the urban areas. Women and their children were left behind to carry on agricultural production activities which resulted in many household economic activities championed by women. This situation placed on them the responsibility of taking decisions on issues on the farm (Lily, Feidman and Shert., 2001). Attempts to restore agriculture to its former glory, national efforts to boost the production of food and cash crops have been made through a number of agricultural programmes like National Accelerated Food Production Programme (NAFPP), Operation Feed the Nation (OFN), Green Revolution Programmes, Go Back to Land, Directorate for Food, Roads and Rural Infrastructure (DFRRI) etc. Despite these efforts the problem of food shortage continues. Food production strategies so far tried, appeared to have achieved limited success. One of the remote causes of the apparent failure was inability to develop and utilize the nation’s manpower resources effectively and efficiently especially in the rural sector (Okunade, 1998).
2 The involvement of women in agriculture has attracted greater attention in recent years because women play very significant roles in Nigeria’s agricultural production, processing and utilization (Nnadozie and Ibe, 2000). Millions of women work as farmers, farm workers and resources managers (Olayide et al, 1990). In doing so, they contribute to national agricultural output, maintenance of environment and family food security (Brown et al., 2001). They dominate in almost all phases of food production such as production of food crops like maize, cassava, vegetables and yam. They have also undertaken the rearing of small farm animals and execution of certain intricate farm operations (Oluwesola 1998). Not only do women play significant roles in food production, they are now also mastering those aspects of agriculture that used to belong exclusively to men. For instance, women help with the strenuous jobs of cutting trees and clearing bushes (Onyibe, 2001). Nnoyelu and Gadzane (1991), revealed that women were found working all the year round producing food crops while men performed only pre-planting tasks that occupy small parts of the agricultural year. While men specialized in certain tasks like clearing bush or forest, cultivation, felling or pruning trees, ploughing or tiling the land, women, have been estimated to do 70 percent of hoeing and weeding, 60 percent of harvesting, 80 percent of transporting crops home and 90 percent of food processing (Steady, 2001). As men’s participation in agriculture declines, the role of women in agricultural production increases. In Mozambique, for example, for every 100 men working in agriculture there are now 153 women (Saito, 1994). Though traditionally, women do not have land of their own, they do their farming on family plots and in any available piece of land no matter how small. Women contribute in areas of food preparation, processing and marketing. The involvement of women in agricultural food production has no limits. Through increased participation in agriculture, women have influenced family decisions on what to produce, how to produce, the sale of small food surpluses to meet their needs and labour-supply. Therefore, their involvement in agriculture is without doubt (Oluwasola, 1998). It is obvious that women are very active in food production. More emphatically, women are the backbone of African agriculture and Nigeria in particular. In the olden days, when agriculture was almost the only available profession, men used to marry as many wives as possible to assist in farm work. Throughout the world, women constitute a greater part of the work force especially in the rural areas (Ufiem 2000). Women are, to a large extent the backbone of Africa rural economics (Adetenwa, 1998) and they play specific roles in the production and processing of food. Having seen that women’s effort cannot be neglected, the World Bank funded two consultancies in Nigeria to
3 determine the extent of the participation of women in agriculture and recommend strategies for concretizing their findings in the form of project activities in 1986 (Nonyelu, 1996). FAOs (1995) report estimates showed that women contributed over 50 percent of the labour force in 56 countries out of 82 developing countries in the world. These figures show the importance of women in the agricultural development process. Furthermore, Mickewait (1999) observed that most African women are significantly engaged in subsistence agriculture; emphasizing Olayide’s (1993) classification of them as the backbones or pillars of small peasant farmers in Nigeria. 1.2
STATEMENT OF PROBLEM Due to low recognition of women’s contribution to food production by both the men
folk and the government through its established agencies, women are not seen as having little potential to contribute to the economy of the country (Ukonu, 2001). They are seen as playing supportive roles to their husbands. In fact women constitute more than half of the total agricultural work force but there is inequality in access to land and other capital resources when compared to the men (Azikiwe, 1990). Therefore, women’s food production potential is being reduced because it is carried out on small and scattered pieces of land which may be unsuitable for the crops planted. This is worsened by little access to basic agricultural production facilities. Thus, rural women’s production efficiency and capacities are influenced negatively. This has caused lots of problems encountered by the great majority of rural women who wish to fully participate in farm work and contribute more to agricultural production. Women are usually the poorest in the society, less educated than men, disease ridden and with very low social, economic and political status. Yet men migrations often leave them in charge of the farm without capital, finances and inputs. Extension services, loans, improved inputs and planting materials by-pass them because they have not been largely recognized. Extension services were often targeted exclusively at men with the assumption that they lead the informal sector and can therefore cause a ‘trickle down effect’ for women. These services, often target men’s agricultural activities such as the type of crops to grow and do not include women’s activities. Studies showed that not only did the extension messages rarely get to women, the few that got to them were inappropriate (Saito and Weidmann, 1995). Rural women’s predicaments are worsened because of the numerous daily domestic and childcare tasks that hinder their moving outside their homes to obtain agricultural assistance.
4 Significant changes have occurred in the agricultural sector over the past 20 years. Both in the role played by women and in the understanding of this role; programmes like women-in-agriculture, better life for rural women, family support programme, family economic
advancement
programme,
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others
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taken
place.
But
these
programmes/strategies have continued to fail because they were not appropriately carried out. Though the programmes were meant for women but those entrusted with the task of ensuring that the proceeds of these programmes reached targeted audience re-channeled enabling fund to their personal accounts (Osakue, 2006). It is worthy of note that none of these programmes targeted the women as either the emergent producer or as the economic mainstay at least in the food subsector and as a matter of fact constituting over 50 percent of the labour work force. Some of the programmes attained the notoriety of gathering only women in the middle and upper class for further enrichment with outright disregard for peasant and rural women whose lives required to be improved. The persistent failures of these programmes have given a wrong documentation of the value of women contribution in agricultural sphere. This has also caused their contribution to be invisible and unaided which has led to the failure to integrate them in development strategies and programmes. These are vexed issues that need urgent attention. Invisibility is one of the numerous obstacles preventing women from attaining full potentials; it is conferred on them by culture and traditions. Rather than remedying the situation through change of mindset and dramatic improvement, the situation is worsening. Gender awareness that takes account of both women and men as unique economic and social actors and addresses their specific cultural, social and economic situation is needed. A clearer understanding of the specific situation of women will provide the basis for identifying the constraint and opportunities for promoting income-generating activities.
Women are
responsible for providing family food, collecting water and fuel, generating household income (including unpaid labour on the family farm) and generating cash incomes from handcrafts, agro-processing and marketing. Generally agricultural projects are expected to give equal access to men and women in Nigeria, however there are always the tendency of men to take over such projects while women participate minimally (Ekumankama, 2000). Analysis of past agricultural and rural development strategies confirm that the full production potential of human resources cannot be realized if women, who make substantial contribution to food production and agriculture, do not have equal access to productive resources and services (FAO, 2002). Nigeria cannot deal with food insecurity, hunger and malnutrition unless she invests in agriculture.
5 Agricultural productivity dramatically changes when women get the same resources as men (Saito et al. 1996,). Women are key to addressing the food security and nutrition goals to cut hunger by half by 2015. Many researches had been carried out on the role of women in agriculture and women labour in crop production. (Uwaka 1982, Olayide et al 1990, Ijere 1991, Okojie 1992, Green 1994, Siyanbola 1995, Nnoyelu et al 1996, Saito et al 1996 Oluwasola 1998, Nnadozie et al 2000 Ufiem 2000, Enete et al 2002; Nzeuzor 2002; Oyilimba 2002; Enyinnaya 2007). The gaps that exist in all these studies are the non-identification of the factors that affect the participation of women at different farm operations, lack of analysis of the constraint facing women farmers and lack of investigating the reasons why previous strategic interventions in solving women agricultural problems have failed. Moreover, there is dearth of information on such studies in the study area, Abia State. The challenge therefore is to bridge these gaps since this will create a clearer understanding of women’s roles and participation in crop production and make them better qualified to benefit from numerous intervention measures against poverty. 1.3
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY The broad objective of the study is to analyse women labour utilization in crop
production in Abia State. The specific objectives are to: i)
identify specific farming operations that utilize women labour in the study area;
ii)
compare the relative contributions of women and men to total labour utilization in different farm operations in the study area;
iii)
identify factors that affect the participation of women in different farm operations;
iv)
determine the effect of women labour utilization and other factors on the value of output;
v)
identify and analyze the constraints facing women farmers in crop production in the study area;
vi)
identify why previous strategies in solving women agricultural problems have achieved limited success;
vii)
suggest ways of improving rural women involvement in crop production in the study area.
1.4
RESEARCH HYPOTHESES The following null hypotheses were tested:
6 1.
There is no significant difference between women and men labour utilization in different farm operations.
2.
The socio-economic characteristics of women farmers such as age, level of formal education, farming experience, do not have significant influence on their participation in different farm operations; and
3.
Women labour utilization does not have significant effect on the value of farm output.
1.5
JUSTIFICATIONS OF THE STUDY In Nigeria, the central challenge to sustaining agricultural production is to equip
farmers both men and women for higher productivity. Increasing agricultural production is very important in facilitating social and economic transformation of traditional peasant economies like Nigeria. A large proportion of the population in Abia State is rural and women constitute an important segment of the state rural manpower. The potentials of women in food production have not been fully developed. According to Awa (1993), Better information about women’s situation and their multiple roles as well as the increase involvement of women in development, planning and monitoring is needed. This would help achieve greater productivity and national food self-reliance while also supporting socioeconomic goals. Also, several studies have shown that if women farmers should have access to resources, they are more productive than men farmers s (FAO,1998). This was confirmed by Oyilimba (2002) that average gross value of output per hectare on Women’s managed plots is higher than that of men’s when used with the same resources. Hence, Nzeuzor (2002) opined that investing in women would increase agricultural production. It is now a consensus in development literature that women are vital force to reckon with in all sphere of human endeavour. To enhance the efforts of rural women in food production and make way for greater contribution to agricultural development, the study explained the situation that determine and direct the activities of women in production. Knowledge of what the women do and why they do them were identified which will be of immense help to policy makers in their effort to facilitate the role of women in agricultural production. It is hoped that the result of this investigation will establish a new and in-dept understanding of the problems of women farmers with respect to food production. Awareness of the problems and potential of women farmers will enable policy making bodies to develop well articulated polices for rural women. Such policies will be aimed at eliminating constraints that limit women’s contribution to agriculture, particularly, food production. The empirical findings will fill the literature gap on
7 women involvement in food production. The findings could also be useful to research scholars interested in this or related topics as information and data would be made available to them. Finally this study suggested possible approaches to solving the problems of women farmers so as to enhance their contribution to agriculture which will lead to national development. 1.6
LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY Some of the respondents usually filled in the questionnaire what they think is
expected of them instead of what they do. Sometimes the questionnaires were simply answered to please the researcher. Most of the information provided by the respondents was by memory recalls. Most of the respondents did not have records of their farming activities and their financial transactions. Some of the respondents refused to fill the questionnaire in the belief that they are intended for taxation purpose notwithstanding the explanation given by the researcher. There may be some error due to aggregation, loss of memory, under estimation or overestimation by farmers. Effort was made to obtain correct information by careful probing and also paying visits to their farms. In addition, fluctuation in prices posed another problem to the accuracy of the data. There was standardization of quantity and prices were placed based on “eye balling”. To minimize error due to these problems, average values of items given by farmers were used. The study is limited only to Abia State due to financial problem and time constraint. A study of this nature would require extensive coverage of the entire states of the federation where women participate in crop production. However, these limitations notwithstanding, the reliability of the findings was not in any way impaired by the above factors and the result could be taken to represent the situation in Abia State.
1.7
PLAN OF THE REPORT The study is presented in five chapters; the first Chapter, the Introduction presents the
background information, problem statement, objectives of the study, hypotheses to be tested, justifications of the study as well as the limitations of the study. The second Chapter reviews the existing literature which were described under the following headings: role of women in agriculture, labour as a factor of agricultural production, sources of agricultural labour, women as sources of agriculture labour, factors affecting agricultural labour, factors affecting agricultural production and their implication for women farmers, constraints to women
8 agricultural production efforts, strategies toward enhancing the performance of women farmers in crop production, theoretical framework and analytical framework. The third Chapter deals with the methodology adopted for the research work. It shows how the study and respondents were selected as well as how data were collected and analyzed. The fourth Chapter presents the analysis of the results and discussions while the summary, conclusion and recommendations on policy issues arising from the findings are represented in Chapter five. The questionnaire used for data collection is represented in appendices.
9
CHAPTER TWO REVIEW OF LITERATURE
2.1
INTRODUCTION In recent years the role of women in national development has been of major interest
and focus of considerable research activity. Several research investigations have been carried out and information have been documented by many experts concerning women’s involvement in agriculture in a number of developing countries. There is a growing awareness among experts, that women constitute a greater proportion of the economically active population in many countries and contribute significantly to the development process. Here in Nigeria and many African countries, some scholars have investigated the specific involvements of women in traditional agriculture with respect to labour supply. The existing literature was reviewed under the following headings: i)
The role of women in agriculture;
ii)
Labour as a factor of agricultural production;
iii) Sources of agricultural labour; iv) Women as sources of agricultural labour; v)
Factors affecting Agricultural labour;
vi)
Factors affecting agricultural production and their implications for women farmers;
vii) Constraints to women agricultural production efforts; viii) Strategies towards enhancing the performance of women farmers in crop production;
2.2
ix)
Theoretical framework
x)
Analytical framework.
THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN AGRICULTURE
Several sources affirmed the central role of women in agriculture and evidence shows that women living in the rural areas do much of the traditional farming. The Federal Office of Statistics (1984), showed that the following proportions of rural women was engaged in agricultural activities in the four states of Eastern Nigeria; Anambra, 86%; Cross River; 62%, Imo, 81%; and Rivers, 57%. Although this survey was carried out when
10 Nigeria had 19 States, the researcher is however of the view that the situation has not changed much now. According to CTA (1993), women in Africa make up more than one third of the labour force. They account for 70% of agricultural workers, 80% of food producers, 100% of those who process basic foodstuffs, and they undertake 60-90% of the marketing. This finding agrees with those from many studies in Nigeria such as Olayiwole (1983), Okojie (1991) and Ijere (1991) that show that women in Nigeria supply much of the labour for production, processing and distribution; particularly, food crops. Afigbo (1991) traced the agricultural activities of the women in Eastern Nigeria to the pre-colonial era. He noted that they constituted the major source of farm labour in the villages but argued that their importance as source of farm labour derived largely from their numbers and not because of men’s laziness. Ezeani (1997) reported high participation of women in farming activities in Ideato North Local Government area of Abia State. The women in the area, according to the survey, process and market crops such as cassava, maize, palm oil, melon and cocoyam. Women in other parts of Nigeria are also playing active roles in agriculture. In a study of women in muslim and non-muslim areas of Northern Nigeria, Ogungbile et al., (1997) found that the activities of the women included land preparation, planting, weeding, fertilizer application, harvesting, processing of food and transportation. Olawoye (1989) reported high participation of women in farming activities in two different ecological zones in Oyo State. Food processing and marketing are traditionally regarded as women’s work. The crop processing ability of the rural women has made them engage in some rural industries. Okonjo (1991) traced the process the rural women go through in producing palm oil from palm fruits and the subsequent production of palm kernels after laborious cracking of dry nuts with stones. According to World Bank (1989), women in sub-Saharan African including Nigeria are responsible for the production of about 70% of the total staple food supply in the region. Women are involved in every stage of food production and although, traditionally, there is gender-biased division of labour, women tend to shoulder the larger share (Gallen, 1994). He observed further that in addition to food production activities, women had the burden of preparing and processing the food while fulfilling their fundamental role of nurturing and caring for children and attending to elderly members of the household. Arene and Omoregie (1991) noted that womenfolk put in more than 15 hours a day to carry out the joint responsibility of farm and household duties as well as perform the functions of farm work,
11 childcare, and household duties, and “rest” only at bed time. Women cannot simply come home from work and put their feet up to rest. In parts of the country where Islamic injunctions limit women movements, women are still involved in the production and harvesting of various food crops such as tomatoes and vegetables. Egunjobi (1989) observed that among the Kanuri tribe of Borno State, who are predominantly Moslems, the number of wives a farmer has is a pointer to the contribution of women to crop production. They are the invisible farmers of the ‘Third World’ although they constitute about 50% of the labour force (C.T.A,1983).Women who work the land may be ‘poor and illiterate’ but are the principal force in the struggle against misery, backwardness and dependency (Cossa, 1994). In recent times, the roles of women in agriculture have taken on greater and larger dimensions due to contemporary developments. More women-headed households are emerging. The population has continued to increase while traditional methods of food production have become grossly inadequate to cope with the current food needs of families (Erinle, 1993). One of the most tedious work in farming is that of weed control which constitutes over 40% of the operational cost of farmers. Some of them need to be weeded up to four times to ensure maximum output and to control rodents attack and women shoulder more of this weeding tasks. Ajayi (1995) noted that women were also, prominent in the harvesting of tree crops in the country and were virtually involved in the transportation of farm produce to the homes and in the rural areas. They do this by carrying the farm produce on their heads as the rural farmers lack functioning transportation. They participate in cash crop production either as extra hands at harvest or employees on plantations or large farms. In Nigeria, women work alongside men in cocoa, oil palm, rubber and coffee plantations (Oluwasola, 1991). All these must have lead Martin (1984) to note that women in African societies spend 70% of their time on food production, 100% on food processing, 50% on food storage and animal husbandry, 60% on the marketing and 80% to obtain water. Hence, African women form an indispensable part of human resources for development. Without their contribution, the economies of African countries will worsen from their present low levels and will not advance to meet the targets and levels which are consistently being set by African countries (Swindell, 1985 and Okorji, 1985). The role of women in agriculture is classified and discussed under the following headings: i.
Role of Women in Rural Development
12 ii.
Role of Women in Food Crop Production
iii.
Women in Fisheries Production
iv.
Women in Forestry/Environment
v.
Women in Livestock Production
vi.
Women in Post harvest Activities
2.2.1
Role of Women in Rural Development Rural Development is a strategy designed to improve the economic and social life of
the people in the rural areas. The main concern in rural development is the modernization of rural transition from traditional isolation to integration with the national economy for equitable and balanced development. National rural development activities can be undertaken by government or International Agencies which may be private or public. The major objective of rural development encompasses improved productivity, increased employment and high incomes for target groups as well as improved qualities in the basic need of life which include food, shelter, education, job opportunities, health service, and improved attitudes like political behavior. It is a means by which provision of social services for the rural population should be combined with promotion of economic growth. According to Quismbing et al (1995), nation building in the third world implies increased agricultural production (food), improved health care, better nutrition and all other essentials for improving the quality of lives of the rural dwellers. Women are directly involved in the areas mentioned above because they are responsible for the food consumed by the family as well as health, nutrition and education of every member of the family. They are in effect the life-wire of the family and the society. Hence the level of civilization and development in the society depends to a large extent on the respect accorded the women folk. Melena (1994) rightly stated that in the rural areas, there is virtually no development if women do not participate fully for the similar reasons that they are the ones who produce the food crops. Women are endowed with numerous natural gifts among which are child bearing and rearing, food production, patience and perseverance, strength and intelligence to mention but a few. Those gifts have marred them a group with essential ingredients for nation building. In this respect, therefore, women have been identified as being superior to men (Tibaijuka, 1994). Hence their effective participation and contribution are needed for development in Nigeria. Women are a tool for nation building and their contribution are needed for development in Nigeria.
13 In Nigeria women play a major role in traditional and other human endeavour such as subsistence food processing, transportation of food, water and fuel, crafts, market trade, domestic chore, child
bearing and rearing (Azikiwe, 1990). Improvements in these
activities, which will in turn improve family incomes and quality of living, are indicators of development and nation building. Women in rural area are working hard to improve the families standard of living. Women are a force to reckon with in nation building but tradition and culture designed them as inferior status and a subordinate position in the society. Hence their contributions are neglected, disregarded and unrecognized in development plans. This has been the bane of many developing countries. Nigeria should not lose sight of the fact that it has been acknowledged in many studies and in developed countries that there is a close relationship between the status of women and state of economic development in any given country (Azikiwe 1990). The recognition of the role of women in agricultural and rural society is fundamental to agricultural and rural development. More importantly, recognizing and supporting this role is crucial for development of women and the fulfillment of their economic potential. Women’s full participation will happen only when women are perceived as subjects not the objects of development (Azikiwe, 1990). Rural economy is greatly dependent on agriculture and its related industries (Okonjo, 1991). The agriculture of the rural area has the women as its backbone said Ijere (1991). The women found the food that nourishes the family, made the dainty appetizing meals, processed the palm oil and attended to the numerous community chores. Thus from dust to dawn, it is restless and all- consuming event for the women. In fact women are the hope for the rural poor (Ijere, 1991). Many families depend on their farm yields for livelihood. About 70% or more of their income is from their farms or and farming activities.
14 Figure 1: The dualistic nature of women’s role in the economy in general and agriculture and food security in particular
WOMEN’S ROLE
PRODUCTION
REPRODUCTION
HOUSEHOLD
FOR MEMBERS
MARKET
FOR MARKET
HOUSEHOLD FOOD SECURITY
POPULATION GROWTH
Sourc: Kasnakoglu, 2006.
OVERALL FOOD SECURITY
COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT
15 In addition to their traditional roles of reproduction and community management, women are also involved in production activities of the household. The production activities can be and in general are for the household consumption but can also be and are becoming more so for the market. In general, the first type of production activity is in the form of unpaid labour and unaccounted for in national income statistics. The distribution of the women’s time among these productive activities is a function of numerous interlinked factors. Oluwasola (1998) pointed out that as long as countries regarded women as chattels, their economic development would be slow and painful. So many programmes have been designed by various governments in Nigeria to alleviate the living of the rural people, but they failed because they did not focus on the women. From the era of Yakubu Gowon, all the past governments instituted at least one economic reform programme aimed at alleviating poverty. In 1972, General Yakubu Gowon introduced the National Accelerated Food Production Programme to boost agricultural production. The Nigeria Agricultural and Cooperative Bank was also established to provide easy funding for agricultural enterprises. General Olusegun Obasanjo’s Government came up with Operation Feed the Nation in 1976 which most significantly was to expose the fact that there was an acute food shortage which needed to be addressed. Alhaji Shehu Shagari’s regime adopted Green Revolution Programmes in 1979. General Mohammadu Buhari’s government embraced Go Back to Land in 1984. One common feature of the intervention programmes was that they wanted every person to be a farmer in order to achieve economic growth and balanced development. They failed because those entrusted with ensuring that the proceeds of the programme reached targeted audience re-channeled huge resources to their personal accounts. It is also worthy of note that none of these programmes targeted the women either as the weak gender or the emergent producer. In attempt to shift from the myopic objectives of the past governments, Ibrahim Babangida in 1986 introduced the Directorate for Food, Roads and Rural Infrastructure aimed essentially at the creation of all season motorable roads, extension of power supply to the rural areas and general opening up of rural communities to the centers for cottage industries. The Peoples Bank and Community Bank were also introduced to provide sure, soft and lines of credit to artisan, farmers, rural cooperative groups and other grass root organizations. Perhaps, government of the day realized that these programmes were doomed to fail both
16 because they failed to target women as economic mainstay, at least in the food subsector, and as a matter of fact constituting over 50 percent artisanal work force. Belatedly, Mrs. Miriam Babangida first experimented with the Better Life for Rural Women Programme which attained the notoriety of gathering only women in the middle and upper classes for further enrichment, with outright disregard for peasant and rural women whose lives required to be improved. When the obvious cosmopolitan tendencies of the better life were heavily criticized, the First Lady hastily introduced the better life for rural dwellers whose only difference from the proceeding programme was change of appellation. General Sani Abacha came up with the Family Support Programme and Family Economic Advancement Programme. Though these twin programmes gulped billons of naira they lacked focus and did not lead to any form of economic support nor create wealth in any form. 2.2.2
Role of Women in Food Crop Production Food is essential for the growth of individuals, households, nations and the world at
large. Food insecurity has been a major challenge for governments in developing countries such as Nigeria. The major reasons for the inability of the agricultural sector to satisfy the food needs of the country include the annual rate of population growth in the country, which is estimated about 2.5-3 percent as against 1.5 percent for food production, high rate of ruralurban migration of mostly able-bodied persons poor planning and implementation of some agricultural programmes, and inappropriate and numerous policies, which sometimes conflict among themselves (Palmer, 1991). Other factors include cropping with low yielding crop varieties at farm level, traditional method of farming, disease outbreaks and land tenure problems. As part of the measures to achieve self-sufficiency and self-reliance in the areas of food and fibre production in Nigeria, particularly, and Africa in general, national and international research institutes have been established to boost food production via extension services. Extension programmes can increase agricultural productivity and rural incomes by bridging the gap between new technical knowledge and farmers practices. However, research and extension services usually assume that farmers are men. The sexual division of labour ensures that men perform some difficult farm work which the women body constitution is culturally assumed to be incapable of doing. Such tasks include land clearing which involves cutting dense forests, the felling of trees, bush burning, pruning and harvesting of trees crops. These are tasks that require substantial energy input not necessarily the amount of time that is required to accomplish them. Women,
17 perform less tedious but equally laborious and time consuming work in the field, like planting, weeding, harvesting, transplanting, processing and marketing. In some situations, women have to take part in aspects of land clearing and bush burning (Adetanwa, 1998). Pre-colonial and even post-independence economic policies have tended to draw men away from the individual farms to administrative centers to earn wages. The cultivation of food crops to feed the family and nation thus falls on women. Nigeria women, like their counterparts in other parts of the developing world, are heavily involved in food production. Statistical data for Nigeria shows that women account for about half of the agricultural labour force and produce 70% of Nigeria food crops (gender and agricultural development storage 2001). They are the core of the economics in Nigeria, comprising about 60% of the informal sector and providing about 70% if the total agricultural labour (Buckland and Hearool, 1996). In southern Nigeria, among the Yoruma cultivation and marketing of cocoa became a women preserve (Kalu, 1999). According to them this integrated of cocoa production into the Yoruba farming system providing a new source of wealth. Awa (1998) reported that Nigerian women constituted 70 percent of the labour force and produce about 80 percent of the national food output. In line with this, Steady (2001) recommended the improvement of the resources of women as to increase their participation in the economy. Dixon (1980), and Carter (1989), were of the view that the small scale farming activities of the rural women were more vital in ensuring food security in Africa than large scale-mechanized food production. Equally worthy to note is Pala (1979) who attempted to provide a rationale for the role of women in rural development with a historical perspective. Among her important conclusions is the suggestion that the indisputable historical fact of women’s role in traditional economies strongly points to the need to involve women in all current development strategies no matter what economic and political ideologies may prevail in the region or country. Achieving the goal of self-sufficiency in the food production in the country requires increasing the productive capacity of the rural women who play a dominant role in agriculture and related activities. (Okorji, 1986). In many parts of the country, women are usually responsible for growing food crops for family consumption. Tiv women of Benue State are responsible for growing yams, which is the mainstay of family menu, as well as cassava, guinea corn and various vegetables. Women in Imo State in a 1986 study were responsible for such crops as cassava, cocoyams and vegetables (Oluwasole, 1998).
18 According to Green (1994), Agbaja women of Owerri province grew 19 out of the 20 crops growing in the community. Other studies showed that Ogoja women of Cross River State, women in Edo State and some Yoruba women were actively involved in the production of various food crops mainly cassava and maize. Also women in Yoruba States and some parts of the far North are actually involved in food crop production as landowners and labourers on farms (Nnonyelu, 1996). The FAO found, in a survey of nine African countries in (1996), that women’s contribution to the population of food crops ranges from 30 percent in Sudan to 80 percent in Republic of Congo with estimates for other countries tending toward the higher end of scale. In some, women also work extensively in cash-crop production. According Gallin et al (1991) Women farmers captioned “Women farmers, the invisible producers” (2003) women farmers in Africa may be poor and illiterate, says Mrs. Celina, Cossa, president of the National farmers union in Mozambique “but at the same time we are the principal force in the struggle against misery, backwardness and dependency.” In many countries across the continent, rural women are pressing for higher profile, to match their preponderant role in the cultivation and processing the continent food. In the same report according to Mrs. Comfort Olayiwole, the principal of Nigeria Samary College of Agriculture, Women’s groups and projects are no longer isolated ventures, easily ignored by government or community members. Women are organizing themselves into a formidable political and social movement. According to a publication of International Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP), (Paris, 2004) on women farmers; “influential players in the world of Agricultural”. Mrs. Karen Sewes the Chair person of the committee is of the view that women farmers play a key role in protecting the diversity of crops and livestocks. She stated that recognition of women farmers as the main guardian of their environment should be expressed in a concrete way. The rational for focusing on women in agriculture as a necessary food security strategy rest on the consideration that they are the largest labour supplier in small-scale farming system. Table below shows how work is divided in Africa.
19 Table 2.1: Percentage of total labour in hours between men and women in Africa Activity Feeding family Hunting Domestic stock (livestock) Fuel and water Marketing Processing Storing Transporting Harvesting Hoeing Planting Turning soil Clearing fields
Men (hours) 5 90 50 10 40 10 20 20 20 30 50 70 95
Women(hours) 95 10 50 90 60 90 80 80 60 70 50 30 5
Source: Commonwealth Secretariat 1992 (Enyinnaya 2007). 2.2.3
Women in Forestry/Environment The activities of rural women in agroforestry and soil conservation not only provide
major support to food production but also promote the sustainability of ecosystems (Oluwasola, 1996). Joen (1997) reported that women in Kenya were involved in a range of forest related activities. He remarked that the women were the protagonists in activities related to the management of forest resources. C.T.A (1993) found that, in Burkina Faso, women were involved in combating erosion in their husband’s farms. In Niger Republic, they dug trenches in the hand-crusted laterite soil to plant trees. In Senegal, they tended small plantations of encalyptus, ziziphus and acacia to replace trees, which, as they called it, were ‘greedy’, and took too much from the land without giving anything back. Women are fuel wood gatherers, some times assisted by their children. They do not cut down tress but rather they pick up after the timber merchants have felled the trees. Women understand the need to conserve the environment, thus they carry out soil conservation practice that ensures return of organic matter to the soil for its enhancement. In the northern states, where the harsh climate have degraded the soils, women groups have developed woodlots and have ensured that tress are planted around the home stead and in communal areas (Oluwasola, 1998). 2.2.4 Women in Livestock Production Women’s role in livestock production depends on the economic and cultural environment. In nomadic societies, women own animals and assist in rearing them. Fulani
20 women tend the sick and young animals and are also responsible for milking the cows, processing the milk and marketing such products. Most of the backyard poultry farms are owned by women” Rural women are also participating in livestock production. Steedy (2001) found that significant numbers of rural women in northern Nigeria kept livestock. In a similar study also, Uwakah and Uwaegbute (1982) reported that women in eastern Nigeria actively participated in livestock production in addition to their traditional crop production. According to Awa (1993), women have adopted rabbitry technologies introduced to them by most ADPs. Women own and rear small stocks and poultry and women in purda fatten rams for sale (Nnoyelu, 1996). In India, Palmer, (1999) reported that women practised as para-veterinarians in their village and achieved self-reliance. They also solved the problem of non-availability of veterinary services in remote villages and successfully managed the dairy. They diagnosed the common ailments and carried out treatments. Many of them were able to carry out insemination in cattle. They managed the fodder in a better way and even started cultivating fodder crops and had made their own well knit milk union. This had revolutionized the dairy industry of the area. 2.2.5 Women in Post harvest Activities In almost all parts of the country, irrespective of cultural considerations, women are mostly responsible for processing food crops both for family consumption and for sale. In many of the southern states, women process cassava into ‘gari, and ‘fufu’ and palm fruits into ‘palm oil’. In the north, women are mostly responsible for threshing grains and processing them for household use. Processing involves transformation of the raw produce into other forms in which it can be stored or eaten. Indeed, processing improves the acceptability, palatability and digestibility of the produce (Imoh, 1990). The role of women in the processing of agricultural produce cannot be overemphasized. Women’s participation in the small-scale traditional agriculture, particularly palm fruit processing is important since the farming systems of developing economies rely largely on women’s labour (Pingali, et al 1997). In Nigeria, women have traditionally participated actively in farming and processing of farm produce and other related rural development activities Onyibe, 2001), Scientists at the International Crop Research Institute for the Semi- Arid Tropics (I.C.R.I.S.A.T.) have observed that women farmers cultivating India’s marginal lands can
21 teach them a thing or two. No wonder women do a major share of the production, processing and preservation of food grains and cash crops in the semi- Arid Tropics (F.A.O., 1994). According to Spencer (1976); the women spend several hours breaking up the clusters of palm fruits gathered by their husbands the day before. This painstaking and boring job does not prevent them, however, from carrying on with their domestic tasks. Women still do much of the processing of crops. The garri making, palm oil extraction, the cotton spinning are still done to a great extent by women (Dvorak, 1996). Palm oil processing in Nigeria is mainly carried out by women; traditionally, palm oil processing is regarded as exclusively a women job (Nweke, 1999). However, studies have shown that women have an important role to play in agriculture as a whole and this can be seen clearly in palm oil processing, which is now a stimulating enterprises in the country. From the processing of palm fruit by rural women various economic products are obtained. These products are classified into primary and secondary products. The primary products include palm oil, palm kernel and palm wine, while secondary products include the fibers and the shell, trunks and the bunch refuse (Obasi, 2005). Oil palm produce (especially palm oil and palm kernel) had been the bedrock of Nigeria’s foreign earnings in the years before the oil boom of the 1970’s.Rural women often engage in agro-based food processing and preservation activities on a small scale basis such as gari-making, maize processing fish smoking and palm oil extraction (Okorji, 1991). These activities apart from the advantage of increasing income level of these women also stimulate expansion of agricultural production because of demand for raw materials to feed the industry. 2.3
LABOUR AS A FACTOR OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION Labour refers to all human effort that is utilized in production including skill and
mental power. It is the second important resource in farm production and can constitute a serious limiting input in the production process. The amount of labor available for production and utilization depends on who is included in the labour force and how many hours they are able and wiling to work (Johnson, 1986). Nigeria set a goal of becoming self-sufficient in food production by the year 2000. This ambitious undertaking did not happen since the country’s demand for food has been growing at a rate of about four to five percent since the 1970s, while agricultural output has been increasing by only about two percent. Moreover, about 80 percent of Nigeria’s farmers are smallholders with an average farm size of less than two hectares. Although the use of irrigation, tractors and fertilizers is gradually being introduced into crop production systems,
22 most of the current growth in output is coming from small-scale farmers who still rely on traditional technology and rudimentary capital in rain fed systems but have increased the amounts of land and labour they use (Gordon and Cray 2005). In order to meet the development challenges and food needs of the new millennium and to achieve the goal of cutting hunger in 2015, agricultural products in developing countries must significantly increase the current productivity of their land, labour and water resources. (Fernandez, 2000). In order to raise productivity at the farm and sector levels, Science and Technology, capacity building or training and property rights and credit must come together. Rural women need to be the central part of this process. Programmes must address the constraints rural women face to access technology, training opportunities, productive resources and credit if these efforts are indeed to cut hunger and improve the standard of living of rural families. Nigeria’s agricultural product is highly labour intensive. Over 90 percent of all tasks in non-mechanized production systems depend on human labour, and for mechanized production systems, between 50 and 60 percent of the tasks depend on human labour (Shaib et al, 1997). Generally, men perform the tasks of clearing and ridging women under take the processing and marketing of farm produce, while and children may also help in weeding, harvesting and bird scaring, and tending of cattle, sheep and goats. However, modernization and labour scarcity have altered the division of labour between sexes. This is in cognizance of the fact that women now perform some men stereotyped farming operations (Okorji, 1988). Agricultural productivity has been defined as the index of the ratio of the value of total farm output to the value of total input used in farm production (Olayide and Heady, 1982). Labour productivity therefore implies the ratio of total output to labour input used in production. In order to ensure increased productivity of labour, efficient allocation and harnessing the full potential of the labour force once allocated becomes imperative. The attainment of economic efficiency in resource use requires the simultaneous achievement of both technical and allocative efficiencies (Barret et al, 1992) The smallholder farmer transforms his available time into labour. This labour is either consumed directly on farm-work, sold for money, traded for goods and services, allocated to leisure or expended on some other alternative activities (Olayide and Atobatele, 1990). 2.4
SOURCES OF AGRICULTURAL LABOUR Farm labour can be obtained from: family non-paid sources such as the household,
relatives and friends; hired paid source; and/or Communal labour (Ukonu, 2001).
23 2.4.1
Family Labour This is the most important source of labour in traditional agriculture that is practised
by most farmers in Abia State. The contribution of family labour is over 75 percent of labour force in traditional agriculture, although it varies inversely with the size of the farm (Mayra et al 1990). Family labour determines the amount of labour to be hired. This is because once the family labour is fully employed, the extra labour has to be hired. ILO (1983) is also of the view that family labour is the determinant source of labour in smallholder farming. Dvorak (1996) described family labour as a valuable but scarce resource since family labour is often not available in the right quantity and at the right time. Family labour use in agriculture comprise the nuclear family of man, his wife or wives and children, and other dependent relations such as the elderly parents, young brothers or children of relatives (Fresco, 1986). Chidebelu (1990) noted that the farm family is the most important source of unpaid labour. According to him, the family head supervises farming activities and allocates jobs to family members based on ability, gender, age, the nature of farm operations and custom. Johnson (1993) is of the view that family labour use in peasant agriculture out numbered the hired labour but owing to decline in polygamy and rise in school enrolment, the use of hired labour is on the increases. Apart from polygamy and school enrolment of children, Ezedinma (1991) is of the opinion that decreasing family labour could be attributed to rural-urban migration of able-bodied family members. Ijere (1978) also reported widespread migration of able-bodied labour from rural areas to urban areas due to lack of infrastructures in the rural areas. Onwueme (1991) observed that recently family labour has been decreasing because of children going to school, inability of school graduates to return to the farm, decrease in family size and government policies as well as rural-urban migration of most of the ablebodied family members. 2.4.2 Hired or wage labour: This obtains mainly in plantations or commercial agriculture. Reduction in family size and communal labour have forced smallholder farmers to hire labour according to the amount they can afford (Famoriyo 1981). When family labour is fully utilized, the extra labour required is to be hired. Hired labour constitutes the highest item of cost in crop production. This results from the high intensive nature of production. According to Olawoye (1989), hired labour constitutes 60 percent of the total cash cost of production. The use of hired
24 labour, according to Ezedinma (1991), is mostly as a result of the inability of family labour to meet up with increased demand for labour, especially during the peak periods. Oyilimba (2002) reported that the use of hired labour was more common among households headed by old people because such households were likely to be larger and to have larger farms. Johnson (1993) categorized hired labour into three, namely, regular, contract and casual labour. According to him, most regular labourers are regarded as permanent workers and include the manger and his assistants who are paid wages and are sometimes given free accommodation on the farm. They may be skilled or unskilled. Contract labourers are used for short periods for capital development projects such as building fences, houses and so on, or other specific operations for an agreed amount. Casual labourers are used to cope with seasonal work peaks such as weeding and threshing. Often their selection is not organized and thus tends to cost much time and money. For instance, if a farmer recruits a bad workman, his cost will surely be affected. This may be in terms of damages done on materials and equipment or poor relations. Chidebelu (1990) observed that farmers complain that hired labour is scarce, expensive and generally unreliable. But farm families are unable to provide the labour required during seasonal peaks, and hired labourers will perform farm operations that require physical exertion beyond that which the farm operator is willing or able to supply. He further stressed that farm tasks such as making mounds, weeding and transplanting rice must be done quickly or yields are reduced. Lack of labour constraints the extent of work done in smallholder agriculture because labour use is correlated with total output. The labour available for cultivation and weeding limits the amount of land a farmer can manage, and the labour available for harvesting the crops limits the final output (Olayide and Atobatele, 1980). 2.4.3
Communal Labour Another type of labour used in peasant agriculture as identified by Barmum and
squire (1979); and Olayide and Atobalele (1980) is communal (community) labour. This type of labour is in form of the farmer’s age grade, association or “work gang” organized to exchange labour to supplement family labour (Okorji, 1988). According to Upton (1992), the family paid for this type of labour partly in providing food and drinks and sometimes music for dancing at the end of “the task.” This type of labour is engaged mostly during the peak periods of production characterized by clearing, mounding, weeding or harvesting depending on the type of crop and crop combination.
25 Labour availability therefore, poses a major limitation on crop types and cropping intensity owing to differences in the response of different crops and crop combination to labour requirement. 2.5
WOMEN AS SOURCES OF AGRICULTURAL LABOUR Labour is said to be the major constraint limiting farm size. The amount of farming
activity that takes place in the rest of the year is determined by the amount of labour that a family can afford during the peak labour demand season Labour is required in agricultural production to perform farm activities as clearing, planting, ploughing, weeding, spraying and harvesting, depending on the type of crop and crop combination. Human labour requirement in production process, especially as regards peasant farming communities, is said to constitute almost 90 percent of all farm operations in unmechanised farms. It also requires up to 70 percent in areas where partial mechanization is possible in form of animal traction and hired factorization (Kayode, 1996). There is always likely to be differences in labour use between farms, between areas and over time. In areas experiencing progressive decline in fallow lengths due to dropping intensification, there is bound to be increase in labour demand for weeding, tillage and crop maintenance operations. Where bush follow is practiced, tedious tasks of cultivating with hoe and weeding are time demanding activities especially in areas with no mechanization to substitute for manual labour. The cost of labour for agriculture is high in spite of increasing population. This has been attributed to rural urban migration and unwillingness of young grade school leavers to undertake the “heavy chores” of weeding and stumping with primitive tools (Olayide and Heady, 1982; Nweke et al., 1994). Labour availability imposes major limitations on crop types and cropping intensity on smallholder farms due to differential response of different crops and crop combinations to labour requirements. Increases in labour supply, therefore, imply greater planting precision, better weed control, more timely-complete harvesting, and minimum-waste processing or storage. The supply of labour thus becomes a critical variable in smallholder farming. The family is the core of labour supply to peasant smallholder (Olayide and Atobatele, 1980”). They further outlined the factors influencing supply of labour at family level as follow: i)
the age at which children should be considered as potential labour;
ii)
the number of hours to be assumed in a working day; and
iii)
Full time commitment in other work.
Thus, seasonal availability of labour is largely influenced by:
26 a)
Nature and significance of off-farm commitments;
b)
The nature of unrelated non-farm activities such as domestic chores of women, feasts, communal building and other social engagements;
c)
The nature of tasks specialization by age group and sex;
d)
Nutritional constraints in the context of reduction of capacity for physical effort due to undernourishment; and
e)
Use of hired labour which may be regular, seasonal or casual (Dey, 1984).
In peasant small-holdings, therefore, much time is spent collecting water and fuel, processing food, marketing as well as on social obligations and illness. The amount of labour available for farm work on these family holdings depends upon how many family members work on the holding and how long each member is prepared to work. If non-family labour is also used, the labour supply will depend also on the availability of hired labour when needed, the amount of cash, goods or land the farmer can offer the employee and how long hired labourers are willing to work (Johnson, 1982). Johnson (1982) also identified a large problem on many commercial farms as recruiting and keeping sufficient qualified farm staff right from managerial to manual jobs. He noted, however, that good working conditions lessened recruitment problems. Traditionally, farming was regarded as almost exclusively a male enterprise. More studies have shown, however, that women have an important part in farm production. Women farmers today are occasionally, involved in more than one-half of farm tasks and are joint decision-makers with their husbands in most farm business decisions (Gallen et al., 1990). Women on small farms tend to be more involved in farm operations than women on larger farms. The woman’s contribution is all the more important in light of the extra-labour needs of smaller farms not benefiting from efficiencies of scale or where the man has an off-farm job. Also, three- fourths of farm women regularly care for a home garden. The fact that contributions are unpaid does not mean they are without economic value (Kachingwe, 1996). In Nigeria, the women constitute a formidable and significant source of labour in small-scale farming (Okorji, 1985). Their activities may be classified into four main groups viz: i)
Cultivation: This involves planting or seeding, input supplies (such as fertilizing, watering, feeding of livestock, spraying, thinning and supplying), weeding and tending or culturing (Benerid, 1982).
ii)
Harvesting: This includes such operations as harvesting, threshing, clearing, transporting and storing.
27 iii)
Distribution: This involves transporting to farm gate/ local markets, concentrating, equalizing/sorting/grading, and merchandising.
iv)
The tasks of alimentation which involves processing for form, packaging, and preparing into various forms of food items or ready-to- consume dishes
When assessed on these four fronts, the women constitute an important live- wire of small peasant farming in Nigeria (Olayide and Bello-Osagie, 1980). Women also form group farming in order to reduce labour demand during peak periods. Group farming covers all collective agricultural effort (Ukonu, 2001). Among women, group farming is important especially in the following areas, namely; relieving labour bottlenecks during peak labour demand periods, reducing the drudgery in many women stereotyped farm duties like weeding, providing an avenue for socializing and for capital mobilization for agricultural and social purposes (Ukonu, 2001). These functions are performed through rotating work practice, thrift savings and credit operations. Olayide and Bello-Osagie (1990) further noted that as much as women activities constitute a significant part of the product of Nigeria’s rural primary production, the incidence of young women becoming a steadily increasing proportion of rural-urban migration tends to create problems of rural labour shortage while at the same time enhancing rural product distribution and trade. Olawayo (1989) observed that in the Nigerian context, women appear to be actively involved in the performance of tasks in the farm. The idea formerly held that some tasks are too tedious for women and, as such, should be left exclusively for the men is now being erased. According to Uwakah (1982), women in Imo and Anambra States no longer regard any of the farming activities as too tedious for them to perform. Yet policy decisions elude them and fail to recognize their various contributions in agriculture. According to the FAO (2004) globally the percentage contribution of women’s labour force is enormous. It listed activity laden contribution of African women to family livelihoods. Table 2.2: Percentage Contribution of African women to family Livelihood Activity % 1 General work force 33 2 Agricultural worker 70 3 Labour to produce food for household consumption 60-80 4 Procession of basic food stuff 100 5 Food storage and transport from farm to village 80 6 Hoeing and weeding work 80 7 Harvesting and marketing activities 60 8 Household water and fuel collection 90 Sources: FAO 2002 (Enyinnaya, 2007).
28 On country basis, FAO (1994) revealed that in Burkina Faso and in Congo Women agricultural labour force were 48% and 73% respectively. In Indonesia, about 54% were engaged in agriculture. Furthermore, Martin (1994) pointed out that greater member of women play vital role in rice production in East Asia. In Papua New Guinea, 71% of agricultural labour forces were women (FAO, 1998). In Europe, the women labour force was negligible, but about 57% of women were recovered in Albania, in Latin America, and Caribbean, less was recorded. In Turkey, Morocco, Egypt, Lebanon, Sudan, Iraq and Mauritius about 55.3%, 53%, 50.7%, 40% 34.7%, 7%, 30.7% and 28% respectively were labour force in agriculture. Saito, et al, (1994) reveal that in Kenya and Nigerians, women provided 33% more than Nigerian men. Precisely in Nigeria, Uwakah et al, (1991) stated that about 60% to 80% of women were engaged in agricultural labour force. Thus FAO (1996) reported that women’s contribution to agricultural production was higher than that of men in many regions. In Zonkwa and Funtus areas of northern Nigeria, Erinle (1993) documented that 23% of labour requirement in Abot farms and Sorghum production were women. Several studies have shown that when women farmers have access to resources, they are more productive than men farmers (FAO 1998). This was confirmed by Saito, et al (1994) that average gross value of output per hectare on women’s managed plots in Kenya is higher than men’s when they used the same resources, hence Uwakah and Uwaegbute (1991) opined that investing in women would increase agricultural production. Furthermore, FAO revealed average daily hours on agriculture and non-agricultural activities by gender. Table 2.3: Gender daily hourly Contribution on Agricultural and Non Agricultural Activity Burkina Faso Kenya Nigeria Zambia M W M W M W M W Non Agriculture 7.0 8.3 4.3 6.2 7.0 9.0 6.4 7.6 Agriculture
1.7
6.0
3.8
6.1
1.5
5.0
0.8
4.6
Total
8.7
14.3
8.1
12.1
8.5
14.0
7.2
12.2
Source: Saito et al, 1994 The table shows that woman’s activities both in agriculture and non agriculture economic activities were exceeding greater than the mens counter parts. This led Okorji (1991), and Wicherich (2002) to refute the Bonseruptian assumption that rural women have less time devoted to their domestic chores because of farm work. They argued that rural
29 women in Eastern Nigeria put more hours per day and later work late into the night in order to meet up with the demand of both farm labour and home chores Singh and Singh (1992) pointed out that women employment in dairy enterprises in Uttar Pradesh, India was very limited because the development of dairy farming was inadequate to absorb the available force, and there was no proper incentive for women to engage in dairy farming. In the words of Kachingwe (1986), if more effort were put into improving the role of women in agriculture, their integration into national development would also be accelerated. 2.6
FACTORS AFFECTING AGRICULTURAL LABOUR In order to effectively improve labour productivity, it is necessary to elicit and
appreciate those factors which affect labour on the farm. Apart from substantially relative wages of urban non-skilled jobs, which have resulted in transfer of agricultural labour into non-farm activities, other factors still contribute to low level productivity in agriculture, especially among small scale farmers. For instance, the share of family labour in traditional agriculture constitutes about 75 percent (Olayemi, 1980). Where the major source of labour supply depends on the size of the family labour, increasing labour productivity is restricted to the number of active family members (household size). The worsening problem of agricultural sector has been traced to declining share of family labour due to absence of formal grass root farm credit (Green, 1994). Ufiem, (2002) observed that the number of people in the household that contributed to family labour had a positive relationship with adoption of agricultural innovation by farmers. Also, Nweke (1996) reported that households that contributed to family labour had a positive relationship with adoption of agricultural innovation by farmers. Also, household size was a determinant of adoption of rented farm land, hired labour and mechanized transportation. The availability of land and size influences the labour employed in production. The availability of land is also affected by the size (density) of agricultural population. In Nigeria, land is also owned by inheritance (and women do not own land) which adversely affects the size available per farm family, hence its effect on output and productivity. That is to say that even when labour is in abundance, the size of the farm determines the quantity that will be utilized. According to Tibaijuka (1994), the system by which land is held and farmed may be an impediment to increased productivity. Okojie (1992) observed that in spite of the land use decree, communal land ownership and shifting cultivation had persisted, encouraging land fragmentation and exploitation, thereby discouraging investment and re-investment on it. If
30 there is no alternative productive employment other than farming, increasing employment on a fixed area of land may drive the marginal product per person down to the subsistence minimum (Upton, 1972). Where the population density is high and the amount of land available limits production, expansion can only be achieved by increasing/ intensifying product per hectare. When family labour is fully employed, the extra labour required has to be hired. The quantity of labour to be hired will therefore depend on the cash available to the farmer. The smallholder women farmers are not able to secure credit from formal sources due to administrative procedures and stringent conditions which are too difficult for the numerous small scale women farmers to fulfill (Shaib et al., 1997). Owing to rural-urban migration, Shaib et al., (1997) observed that farming sector wage rates have been on the increase rising from 0.45 per man-day in 1970-75 period to nearly N65.00 per man day in the 1991-1994 period. The situation makes hired labour increasingly unaffordable to the small-scale farmers. According to Olayide and Alobatele (1990), the indicative of economics of labour utilization on Nigeria farms is the time spent on agricultural work. The time spent on agricultural work could be increased by increasing the opportunity cost of leisure. This is because the labourer will devote more hours so long as he values the product of his effort more than leisure (Upton, 1992). Olaitan (1995) opined that productivity in agriculture, technical trade, commerce and local craft is low because rural people employ traditional method in the production process. Cheaper and appropriate substitution for labour requires the use of machinery. Improved productive capacity therefore requires that farmers make effective use of modern technologies in their work role. In the small holder farms, production depend heavily on the usual “hoe-cutlass” technology (Olayide and Atobatele 1990; Shaib et al., 1997). Labour productivity therefore depends on the extent to which labour saving devices are applied in production. Johnson (1993) argued that a rise in output needs either more labour on the substitution of capital for labour to cope with labour peaks, since labour is often limiting on smallholder farms Labour could equally be affected by the type and nature of enterprise. This is because the type and nature of enterprise determines the type and quantity of labour to be employed. For example, cultivation may be assessed by the area covered while weeding may be affected by the weed growth. Upton (1992) indicated that rate of working could be affected by the task, the crop, the cropping sequence, the soil type and condition, the plot size, the tools and method used, sex age, nutrition and health of workers
31 It is a common practice that particular farming operations or activities are ascribed to particular family members. Men may be responsible for clearing and heaping while women and children undertake weeding and harvesting. Studies by Okorji (1988) showed that women contributed between 60 and 80 percent of total labour used in agricultural production and usually worked more hours per week than men. Ijere (1991) reported that women in subSaharan Africa accounted far more than three quarters of the food produced in the region. Johnson (1997) indicated that gender specific work in African farming was disappearing since women currently took on tasks, which were traditionally assigned to men. Nweke (1996) in his study on cassava observed that more cassava was grown for sale by women than by men. 2.7
FACTORS AFFECTING AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR WOMEN FARMERS Some experts have blamed the decline in agricultural production on the emergence of
mineral oil in the Nigerian economy and the consequent neglect of agriculture as an important source of revenue for the country. Others feel that factors such as land tenure, adult illiteracy and poor attitude to farming, constitute very serous barriers to increased agricultural production. More detailed investigation shows that a wide range of variables have operated separately or jointly to give rise to the present status of farming in Nigeria (Ezedinma, 1991). Series of investigations have been undertaken by a good number of scholars in different ecological zones in Nigeria. Most of their findings confirm that farming is susceptible to physical uncertainties of nature and man-made constraints. Such constraints include diseases, pests, erosion, flood, drought, fire disaster, soil fertility, hills and slopes, soil texture and degradation, among others. These pose serious constraints to the productivity of the soil in terms of potential crop yields (Ezedimma, 1991). Identified major barriers to increasing agricultural production in Abia and other States of Nigeria include lack of capital, lack of labour and lack of incentives for the farmers. Others include land tenure problems, soil fertility, lack of infrastructural facilities in the rural area and ineffective follow-up by the extension services (Oyilimba, 2002). Eze and Okoli (1992) believed that the food production problems experienced by Nigeria’s farmers could be associated with inefficient delivery system, unorganized markets, non-existence of feeder roads, lack of technical know-how and inadequate or non-existing processing and storage facilities. Due to lack of preservative techniques, most farmers are
32 faced with the problem of postharvest losses. Many rural communities in Nigeria are isolated because of the barrier created by poor transportation. Some of the factors enumerated above are beyond the control of the women farmers. They exert serious limiting influence on their agricultural production. They have no incentive to produce above family needs, subsistence farming continues to be the main occupation of most women farmers. Since what is produced under these systems is grossly inadequate to meet the food demand of the population, the problem of increasing food production still remain unsolved. Many women farmers still use crude implements on which a lot of energy is exerted. Kayode (1996) pointed out that where a women farmer relies only on the use of traditional method of land preparation, there is a limit to the area she can cultivate. Ufiem (2002) noted that the average farm size in Nigeria, especially in the Southern part, had fallen greatly. Although small-scale farming is often characterized by limited use of inputs, and absence of modern techniques, among others, the ability of any land to produce, irrespective of size, is limited by the law of diminishing returns. Any attempt to produce above the set limits without adequate soil management practice will not result in increased yield. Many scholars have wondered whether women farmers require credit facilities to improve their farms. Osuala (1991) identified the problems hindering easy flow of credit to farmers as high level of illiteracy, lack of acceptable collaterals, unwillingness to join cooperative societies and poor farm management practices. With regard to capital formation, the savings of most farms are almost zero. Despite the fact that agriculture engages over 70 percent of the rural population, shortage of agricultural labour is identified as the major problem facing the Nigerian smallholder farming system. Rural-urban drift of mens and youths away from agriculture is found to be responsible for depletion of labour; it is therefore believed that if there must be noticeable increase in agricultural production, steps must be taken to supplement the efforts of the ageing agricultural population. 2.8
CONSTRAINTS TO WOMEN’S AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION EFFORTS Despite the contributions of women in the agricultural sector as well as in other
developmental processes, a number of constraints affect women’s economic activities in the rural areas. These constraints adversely affect the productivity of women and hence their well being. Women grow most of African’s food but lack critical support such as land, fertilizers,
33 credit, labour saving implements and political clout needed to maximize private role (Gallen, 1994). Some of the constraints are discussed below: 2.8.1
Land Tenure System In many rural areas, gender-based land tenure systems limit women’s access to good
family land. All too often, rural women in developing countries have no clear legal status; most critically inheritance and tenure laws prohibit women’s ownership and use of land. Even the right to use small plots must often be granted by a women’s husband, inherited from her father or requested from men village elders when women have their own plots, they are invariably small, dispersed, remote and less fertile than those owned by men (Martin, 1994). Nzeuzo (2002) noted also that indigenous land tenure ensures that women produce food crops for the family without any right to land ownership. This constraint of land tenure system denies women the use of landed properties as collateral/security to obtain loans from credit agencies and without investible funds to break the circle of low productivity; women will continue to remain subsistent producers. According to the (FAO, 1992) only a woman of certain age and with at least an adolescent men child will normally be allowed to continue to use her husbands land if he dies. Similarly, divorce may leave a woman landless. Women’s group can usually obtain the right to use the land but, it is often very far from the village and of poor quality. In summary, the publication is of the view that the land tenure system in Nigeria does not specify equal access rights to land for women and men. According to (Jeon, 1997), access to land, labour and credit are sources of constraints for women farmers. (Ezumah., 1996) provided data from some Igbo communities and showed that single women as well as widows, divorces and those separated tend to experience greater constraints in access to land than married women. According to (Saito et al, 1991) in a recent Nigerian survey, the area farmed by household is headed by men. Without title to land, women cannot plant cash crops which are high income yielding. With increasing monetization of the rural economy, women are bound to withdraw their labour from the farm and invest it in more productive non-farm enterprises (Oluwasola, 1991). Furthermore, he noted that women did not have access to fertile agricultural lands as these were appropriated by men for the cultivation of cash crops. The use of marginal land thus makes the marginal productivity of women’s labour to be low, especially as they have no access to modern farm inputs like fertilizer.
34 2.8.2
Lack of Improved Technology The backwardness of techniques of agricultural production are on their own a source
of hindrance to increased productivity (Oluwasola, 1991). Moreover, although rural women are knowledgeable about traditional technology and its use, they have little possibility of adopting modern innovations and practices that could lighten their load and improve the returns from production activities (Martin, 1994).As Hardy and Weed (1983) pointed out, technology is traditional and of low productivity, usually requiring 5 hours of hand-hoeing a day to feed 5 people and to provide a 20% surplus for sale in local markets, investment in modern technology like mechanization, fertilizer, pesticides, herbicides, improved storage, field-to-house transport, motorable roads etc. can help women and the entire agricultural landscape achieve higher productivity. But, according to Bernerid (1982), modern technology need to be purchased which makes it inaccessible to women because their meager earnings are expended on immediate survival necessities. Even in the area of processing, women have also depended on laborious traditional techniques which only aid them to age faster than their contemporaries in the urban non-agricultural sector (Oluwasola, 1991). Studies on Nsukka farmers on accessibility to technology include those by Onebanjo (1994); Ezeh and Okoli (1996). The general trend in their findings was that these farmers were dissatisfied with the agricultural programmes effects on the accessibility of farm technologies. This was further confirmed by a research report carried out by Eze and Okoli (1996) in their women farmers’ access to technological inputs in Nsukka. They observed that: (A)
Some of the agro-technological inputs that were either very or moderately accessible to the women farmers were also very or moderately relevant to their farming objective (e.g. the cutlass).
(B)
Some of the inputs that were rarely accessible to the women farmers were also rarely relevant to their farm objectives (e.g rakes).
(C)
Some of the inputs that were either very or moderately relevant to the women farmers objectives were also rarely accessible to them (e.g. tractors). That some of the inputs were rarely relevant but were very or moderately accessible
can be attributed to the women’s general ignorance about their use; the women lack of access to extension services (Nweke, 1994), to educate them about the relevance of the inputs; the unsuitability of the inputs for the topography of the land; or some socio-cultural practices, such as the land-tenure system in Nsukka.
35 2.8.3
Lack of Credit Women have no access to the credit and capital required to increase production. They
need short-term credit to buy improved seeds, fertilizers, insecticides and herbicides and to hire farm labourers to work the field and to help with post-harvest operations. They lack a resource that they can use as collateral security to obtain loans (Dvorak, 1996). Without adequate cash income and access to investible credit, women are unable to take advantage of productive resources like irrigation water, machinery, transportation and to set up new enterprises. Joen (1997) pointed out that rural women’s limited access to financial services therefore thwarts their efforts to improve or expand their farm activities so as to earn a cash income. Eze and Okoli, (1992) pointed out that lack of access to credit facilities is a major constraint women experience in developing their capabilities of potentials as farmers. They are of the view that majority of the recipients of agricultural loans in Nigeria are reported to be men “progressive farmers”. Ani, (2002) is of the same view that farmers who are incapacitated by lack of credit facilities experience difficulties in procuring implements as well as inputs to improve their agricultural production. As a result of these constraints women experience in agriculture, they are not able to maintain a balance between their labour input and their productivity. Ajayi (1995), indicated that steps taken to make credit available to the poor have mostly benefited mens, leaving poor women little access to financial markets, both because they are poor and that they are women, he suggests that they are however subject to more obstacles in obtaining loans because sex- specific constraint include high levels of illiteracy, lack of information about the availability of loans, lack of collateral or surety of loans, and the unwillingness of many credit institutions to deal with new and small scale borrowers which in most cases are women. He suggests that women-small-farmers particularly in Africa, desperately need access to credit. An analysis of credit schemes in five African countries where women predominates in food production found that women received more than 10 percent of the total credit directed to agricultural (FAO, 1990). (This it was reported is the result in part of their lack of guarantee loans and in part of their exclusion from men-oriented information network and extension services). Women’s potential productivity and ability to repay loans are also frequently under estimated or even ridiculed. Studies in Africa have also documented that the tendency of extension services and agricultural information dated from the colonial period (Boserup, 1990; Buckland and Haleeguah 1996) and studies of contemporary Nigerian
36 situations continues to demonstrate that men receive more extension visits and inputs like fertilizer and improved materials than women (Ezumah 1996). 2.8.4
Lack of Time Time is another factor that does not favour women’s production activities. According
to Cossa (1994), time is not in favour of the rural women as they work 10-15 hours on farming, marketing, cooking, childcare and other forms of domestic labour. In additions, they must work in the family plots on asks for which only human muscle power can be used. At the end of the day, little time is available for personal farm business. 2.8.5
Lack of Extension Services It is common practice to direct extension and training services primarily to men.
Women farmers according to Joen (1997), receive only 5% of all agricultural extension services worldwide and only 15% of the world’s extension agents are women. Extension programmes rarely identify women as an integral part of the target audience and extension meetings are often scheduled at times when women farmers are unable to attend because of their other household responsibilities. Also, Boserup (1990) observed that more extension agents addressed themselves to men heads of households without considering women activities. They focused on the cash crops produced by men while secondary and subsistence foods produced by women were neglected. Furthermore, Oluwasola (1991) admitted that the problems of illiteracy compounded this issue. In the rural areas, the number of illiterate women is disproportionately high and because they do not have the necessary time to attend adult education classes, they lack the confidence and assurance to break the traditional hold on them and patronize extension services even when they are held at their doorsteps. Thus, the women are not able to take the full advantages of information that can aid production. The economic adjustment programmes have led to increases in the cost of basic inputs including implements, labour and transportation, which have made the cost of production very high. In fact, the high cost of transportation has made it economically unsound to cultivate distant farms, forcing women to till the less fertile land close to the settlements with its attendant negative effect on productivity, family food security, resource recognition, resource degradation and environmental sustainability. Inflation has also led to increase in the prices of essential items including non-agricultural consumables, health care and education of the children (F.A.O, 1997). According to (IFAD, 1992) on the state of rural poverty; the prime constraint is the availability of resources to women and this in turn is a direct consequence of their socio-
37 economic status in the society. This provides a formidable barrier to women being able to take matter in their own hands and invest in better production technology. Even donkeys and light weight cultivators to go with them are beyond the reach of most, unless their husbands corporate for the purchase. It is true that men’s groups talked positively about the need to improve women’s production technology, but for them to do anything practical about it may be a different matter. A man in a rural community with progressive attitudes towards women runs the risk of criticism and ridicule from his traditional peers according to the publication. 2.9
STRATEGIES TOWARDS ENHANCING THE PERFORMANCE OF WOMEN FARMERS IN CROP PRODUCTION One of the strategies is taking gender into account. The government advocated joint
family decision making on land use and an equal distribution of resulting economic benefit (African farmer, 1994). The plan also pledges to allocate more personnel and financial resources to research production, storage and processing of nutritionally important food crops, while increasing women access to land and extension services. The goals according to the programmes are to bolster women participation in agriculture and rural development. Another gender issues was raised by Ezumah (1996) “perception of womanhood in Nigeria and the challenge of development”. The author closes with suggestions on how to address the challenge confronting women as a result of ways womanhood is perceived in Nigeria society. The paper pointed out the need for concerted efforts to eliminate the difficulties women farmers experience in accessing productive resources. These include access to land, capital, extension services and improved agricultural technologies and training. Ezumah (1996) in her paper titled “enhancing the role of women in crop production; a case study of Igbo women in Nigeria” suggested that in the sphere of paid employment, it is important to de-emphasize gender socialization which hinders goals aspirators of girls and women towards scientific and technological skills. She also pointed out the need to address the issue of gender discrimination and suggested that women’s agricultural productivity can be promoted tracing the use of public enlightenment programmes that will sensitize them about options available for self-improvement through the adoption of improved agricultural methods. Buckland and Haleegoah (1996) in their Nigeria case study on woman and international development emphasized on public enlightenment efforts as a major tool needed to sensitize the populace that child caring and domestic responsibility are not women’s problems but should be undertaken through concerted efforts of both genders. The provision
38 of adequate day care facilities will go a long way in alleviating some of the conflicts women experience in coping with their career and domestic obligations. Ezeh and Okoli (1996) on the women farmer’s access to technological inputs in Nsukka recommended that the government should review policies on production, procurement, and distribution of agro-technological inputs.
The review should aim at
ensuring the production and procurement of technological inputs that are relevant to the women farmers objectives. The policy on distribution should ensure the elimination of many of the middle agents as these tend to hike up prices beyond the level of the government fixed prices. In addition, various levels of government in Nigeria should very heavily subsidize agro-technological inputs, as most of the women farmers are so poor that they cannot afford the high-level technological inputs that would maximize their farm outputs. Acker (1999) suggested that improving the quality of higher education in agriculture would reduce constraints and improve opportunities in the agricultural sector. He pointed out that constraints and opportunities are a factor of a. Lack of global co-operation. b. Sources of knowledge c. Globalization of educational context d. Gender unbalances and e. Nation disciplinary approach Onyibe (2002) worked on Agricultural education for sustainable rural development and challenges for developing countries in the 21st century. He concluded that agricultural education curricula need to be redirected to address the labour demands of the private sector. Curricular reorientation will need to incorporate both the new role of market oriented as well as issues of direct relevance to food security and rural poverty Agricultural colleges and universities need to determine their unique functions and the special attributes that they can offer students and the agricultural community. He also suggested the need for governments in developing countries to high education in agriculture. Also, he maintained that in the next decade agricultural education institutions in developing countries will need to address not only immediate production needs, but also long term food security, sustainable agriculture and rural development needs. This will require moving from single disciplinary approach to an inter-disciplinary approach, which incorporated a wide range of new topics including gender, environmental and population issues. Onebanjo (1994) suggested that effective training of agricultural extension staffs will improve not only the extension staffs but
39 agricultural professionals in general. Unfortunately, the training of human resources in agriculture is often not a high priority in the development plans of countries. Nnadozie and Ibe (2000) in a publication about information needs of rural women in Nigeria suggested some factors contributing to the low standard of living of rural people and rural women in particular. A survey conducted in Nigeria suggests that rural women who are predominately illiterate are ignorant of modern means of agricultural production and other ways of self-development. The dissemination of information could assist rural dwellers to improve themselves and this is recommended as an effective means of agricultural and rural development.
Bamberger (1994) suggests that women economic advancement through
agricultural change could be achieved by a review of donor experience. He concluded that the generation of information that will allow for a vigorous analysis of the forgone benefits of not promoting the economic advancement of women in agriculture should now be given a high priority by the research profession. If it is found that women are at least as productive per unit of land, labour, or other factor inputs as men, then the potentials for national economic growth based on women’s agriculture can be calculated with reference to levels of project designs based on calculations will also stand a much higher chance of success and a sustainability than in the past. According to the publication of the (FAO 2004), Victor Sekitoleko, Sub regional Representative, Food and Agriculture Organization presented some strategies for improving food and Nutrition security in African. They include. (a)
enhancing political commitment and resources
(b)
Increasing agricultural productivity
(c)
Addressing the complete food and nutrition cycle to reduce hunger and undernutrition. According to the world development report (2001) Rural Development indicators
handbook (2000) FAO and WHO jointly held international conference on Nutrition (ICN) in Rome (1992) which was signed by ministers of the 159 countries present. The world declaration focuses on elimination of acute malnutrition and starvation. The 1996 Rome declaration on the World Food Summit (WFS, 2002), reiterated the ICN goals. The (WFS) led to the establishment of the Anti-Hunger Programme (AHP) to improve the performance of small-scale farmers in rural development in general. The (WFS) also led to the establishment of (IAAH) International Alliance Against Hunger. This includes supporting countries in updating the policies and strategies for agriculture, food security and Nutrition towards achieving the (WFS) goals by 2075. This line of thinking was jointly presented by
40 IFAD, FAO, and WFS at the March 2002 International conference on financing for agriculture, food and rural development and most recently FAO and others have been assisting the NEPAD secretariat in developing the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Program (CAADP). The CAADP focuses on four main pillars: (a)
Extending the area under-sustainable land management and reliable water control systems.
(b)
Improving rural infrastructure and trade related capacities for market access.
(c)
Increasing food supply and reducing hunger.
(d)
Agricultural research technology, dissemination and adoption. Also incorporating fisheries, forestry and livestock into (CAAPD); According to FAO
(2004) on the importance of Agricultural growth, food insecurity requires a strong focus on rural people and their empowerment on agricultural development and increased investment in agriculture and agricultural trade. It maintains that with consistent political commitment and availability of resources to both agriculture and rural development and the use of integrated approaches that are people centered, there will be an increase in agricultural productivity and in this way the complete food and nutrition cycle can be addressed to reduce hunger and under-nutrition. But success mostly depends on having the conducive policies, adequate institution, improved market infrastructure, social safety nets and most importantly peace and stability. According to Saito et al (1994) on “Raising the productivity of woman farmers in sub-Sahara African” made the following findings and suggestions: (a)
The African rural household is changing and traditional systems are breaking.
(b)
The evolving circumstances have changed the role of women in African agriculture.
(c)
Women headed household are increasingly becoming common in south Sahara African.
(d)
Government is becoming to realize that raising agricultural output and production means a greater focus on women farmers.
(e)
Land rights, women legal right to land throughout sub-Sahara African must be expanded and secured so that they can be implemented in production.
(f)
More farm land should be allocated to woman to woman to raise their productivities.
41 This was based on studies carried out on four countries viz: Burkina Faso, Kenya, Nigeria, and Zambia. According to women in Agricultural Development by (Ani, 2002), another factor to consider is credit facilities. Agricultural production generally is capital intensive and in developing countries such as Nigeria, farmers need to inject capital into agriculture in order to increase production. The need for providing agricultural credit to farmers is universal. Even in highly developed countries of the World, agricultural credit has been an important instrument not only for fostering agricultural development but also for improving efficiency and expanding production. Credit makes it possible for farmers to take advantages of new machine, good seeds, fertilizers, livestock and labour, all which enable farmers to organize and operate a larger and more profitable business. The availability of credit is essential for improving productivity and enhancing income, and also at times, for making up seasonal short falls. Short terms credit may be for seeds and fertilizers and long term credit for tools or animals, and perhaps to set up a small-scale enterprise such as a poultry farm. A paper prepared by Pingali et al (1987) on animal traction for agricultural development in West African, shows the impact, profitability and constraints on the use of animals traction for agricultural development. He is of the view that animal traction encourages crop livestock integration. Animals-drawn cart provide new marketing opportunities and facilitate the movement of goods, people, producers, water, crop residues and manures. The profitability and sustainability of animal traction depend on support and repair as well as animals health requirements. Animal traction may assist women farmers to increase total production of their crops because more land will be cultivated when they have draft animals so that total yield per farm increases. Animal traction is often associated with higher crop yields than those obtained by hoe-farming (Dvorak 1996). Cloud (2000) found that a significant increase in total crop yield of maize, millet, groundnuts and beans was associated with ridge formation using oxen as power sources, which if adopted could provide significant benefits in terms of improved yield. According to (Ani, 2001), women empowerment would go a long way in improving the participation of women farmers in agriculture. Nutrition cannot be improved without the women who produce and process most of the worlds’ food. Health, population and education problems cannot be solved without women who bear, nurture and give initial education to children. Increase in productive employment cannot significantly be achieved without the labour and employment of women who form half of the labour force. High production cannot be reached without involving the large number of women farmers and distributors, equitable
42 distribution of income and wealth is not possible without the involvement of women, who are often responsible for the welfare of children and relatives, either by customs due to men migration (UN publication, 2000). In all, achieving any development objective depends upon taking into consideration of contribution and needs of both men and women and the involvement of both the formation of policies and execution of projects. Both men and women should share in the work and reward of development since the ultimate objective of nation building is all about sustained improvement in the well being of the individuals and bestows benefits in all. 2.10
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
2.10.1 The Concept of Participation in Agricultural Development Programmes Participation means different things to different people and groups depending on their interest. It is a continuum, which can be defined vigorously depending on where one is on the continuum, ranging from information through consultation to mechanism for collaboration and ultimately to empowerment. The World Bank (1994) defines participation as “A process through which stake holders influence and share development initiatives, decisions and resources which affects them. Egwu (2003) defined participation as playing active, though not necessarily direct, roles in community decisions, knowledge of local issues, related attempts to influence proposed measures through individuals and group actions etc and often justified on the ground that it allows for the tapping of under used human resources and get many people to understand and co-operate with measures called for in the planners strategy for development. Participation of farmers in agricultural development is necessary if sustainability is to be achieved. According to Egwu (2003), local participation in development is both the goal and method of attaining development and development processes and participatory development can only be achieved under a situation where such participation originates within, and local people define and solve problems. However, for effective participation in any development initiative, all stakeholders must be involved for tangible and successful development outcome. Many agricultural development efforts in Nigeria in which substantial human and financial resources have been invested, failed to achieve the expected desire results, primarily because the targeted beneficiaries of the efforts have not been involved in the planning and design of the programmes (Arokoyo, 2002). For success therefore the development beneficiaries must participate fully in the development initiative right from problems
43 identification and prioritization of problems all though project design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. 2.10.2 Participatory Models Agriculture is not a monolithic structure but an educational process. It can be organized in different ways (Banga, 2004). Over the years, participatory models like the Transfer of Technology model (TOT) and
Ministry/Conventional General Extension
(Colonial Model) have been used, but have not really produced the much desired outcomes of significant and unstained agricultural growth to ensure food security for the nation. For this reason, Ugoala (2006) used the participatory development model as conceptual model of this study on the participation of women in the national special programme for food security in Abia State, and the model proved better than TOT and Colonial models. However, the study reviewed the advantages and disadvantages of these models. 2.10.2.1 The Transfer of Technology Model (TOT) The TOT model is premised on the traditional concept of agricultural extension as primarily a vehicle for INFORMATION DELIVERY to farmers, “a function related to the transfer of officially commercial technologies being promoted by a commercial firm or a government ministry” (Awe, 1993). The TOT model calls for the delivery of research results from scientist through extension agents to farmers. Thus the major flaws of this model are: i.
Top-down approach in technology development and non-involvement of the clients as major stakeholders in technology development, resulting in the development of inappropriate technologies. The approaches were therefore not participatory. Participatory extension is based on participatory on-farm technology development, experimental learning and technology dissemination.
ii.
The Concept of One Knowledge Source, The Expert Being the Scientist: Production problems are usually site specific and of necessity, require input
from
local
knowledge system to develop appropriate technical solution. The linear model thus excludes indigenous knowledge and previous intervention. The one knowledge source promotes unidirectional information flow, which unfortunately makes the farmer the receiver of “packed wisdom” (FAO, 1995). According to Arokoyo (2002) The extension worker’s job TOT is made essentially to get farmers to do what the extension worker wanted the farmer to do. Then, if the technology was not adopted, it is blamed on the farmer’s resistance to change. Agricultural production is more than dealing with physical and technical problems, it has an important social dimension dealing with people. Also, the client is viewed and treated as a pleasure receiver of information.
44 iii.
The Role of Communication: The role of communication in the Transfer of Technology Model (TOT) is basically to produce information materials for the transfer of knowledge from researchers through the extension system to farmers. In this unidirectional transfer of information process, there is very little room for real communication (Information/Ideas and Knowledge Sharing). The “national” Training and Visit system (T&V) developed in the Green Revolution Agriculture is premised on the TOT model. Although the system proved to be more effective than the earlier strategies, it nevertheless did not in practice, seek to communicate but rather to inform (FAO, 1995). Figure 2, shows the Transfer of Technology (TOT) model which uses the top-bottom
approach. In this model the change agent is the middle-person between research and farmer, and deliver to the farmer technologies already designed by the research and gives feed back to the research if need be.
Figure 2: Transfer of Technology Model (TOT)
Research/Agricultural Development Programme already designed
Information
Extension Workers/ Contractors
Feed back
Farmers
Source: Abia ADP, Umuahia, 2004 (Ugoala, 2006).
2.10.2.2 Ministry/Conventional General Extension (Colonial Model) Often regarded as the Lugardian extension approach in Nigeria, this approach followed the original colonial model, which combined research and extension within the same organization. All-important aspects of smallholder agricultural-plants production and animal husbandry could be attended to by the respective sections of the ministry established under its jurisdiction. In many ways the hierarchical and highly bureaucratic way in which the services were organized hampers a full realization of their potential. Also, the way in which technical and other knowledge is transferred into the field leads to distorted and out dated information. In the eyes of the ministry, extension has not been a purely educational actuality and may include anything from statistical data collection, to attending to foreign visitation. Incompatible with and clearly detrimental to regular extension work are such
45 activities as supervising credit-repayment, policing disease control measure etc. Ministry based extension has been unable to reach a majority or potential clientele for economic, socio-psychological and technical reasons. 2.10.2.3
The Participatory Development Models Chambers (1993) has advocated participatory development model to enhance
planning, more democratic decision-making, value social diversity, workers towards – L;sustainability and enhancement of community participation and empowerment. Ekaette and Olowu (2002) reported that the participatory extension approach enable the resources-poor farmers themselves rather than the professional extension practitioners acts as the principal change agent and the professional agent act as facilitator. Advocates of this model argue that the production of knowledge and generation of potential solution should be carried out by those whose livelihood strategies formed the subject for research and that participation development approach combines research with action, offering opportunities for mobilizing local people for joint action (Egwu, 2003)). These various participatory, farmers and approaches to research and extension are generally referred to as “farmer first” Demand-driven extension. A good example is the Farmer Field School (FFS) approach that was originally developed in South-East Asia. However, research has shown that rural people have been proven to be knowledgeable about their environments and needs. Features of Participatory development models include: -
Decentralized, focused and Community Based;
-
Community/Farmer Organizations/Farmer Groups are the major decision-makers;
-
The approaches have control i.e. in directing research and extension agenda through empowerment;
-
Strengthens the innovative capacity of resource-poor farmers;
-
Emphasizes use of local resources, builds in indigenous knowledge;
-
Flexible and adaptable to suit the complexities of people and environments;
-
Involves role reversals for development partners;
-
Farmers/communities raters than the scientists and experts;
-
Decides on the research priorities, conducts experiments and evaluates results,
-
Scientists and extension facilitators learn from, consult, research for and supply ideas and technologies to convince;
-
Catalyses and supports farmers in a collaborative venture for sustainable development.
46 Figure 3 shows the participatory development model using the bottom-top approach. In figure 3, there are selected farmer-related variables influencing their participation (intervening factors) and the intervention characteristics (approach) from the figure, it is observed that the farmer-related intervening factor and the approach used play major roles in the outcome of the programme. Figure 3: Participatory Development Model
Intervening Factors
Farmers/Extension agents identify and prioritize problems and direct research, develop and implement programme with the people, technology gender sensitive
Socio-economic Characteristics-age, marital status farm size, household size, primary occupation etc Effective Farmer Participation All Farmers/ Rural People
Outcome Food security, Improved Economy.
Source: Abia ADP, Umuahia, 2004 (Ugoala, 2006).
2.11
ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK Evidence from literature shows that various forms of analytical techniques have been
developed and applied by economists for the analysis of data. A simple but important analytical tools used in data analysis is the descriptive statistics. These include tables, graphs, charts, frequency distribution, percentages, mean and standard deviation among others. However, some specific objectives and quantitative data require indepth analysis which may need more complex analytical tools then the simple descriptive statistical tools. On the other hand, the choice of techniques depends on a host of factors such as the objective of the study, the availability of data, time and budget (Madala, 1992).
47 The following specific models were employed
in this study in addition to the
descriptive statistical tools. i)
Multiple Regression Analysis
ii)
Multinomial logit model
iii)
The t-test statistic
iv)
Likert rating scale technique
2.11.1 Multiple Regression Analysis Freedmen (2005), observed that regression analysis in statistics is a technique which examines the relation of a dependent variable (response variable) to the specific independent variable (explanatory variables). The independent variables are used
to induce change or
explain the behaviour of the dependent variable (Kontsoyianis, 2001). Ordinary least square regression techniques will be used for the analysis in this research. Kountsoyianis (2001), noted that OLS has some features and assumptions which make it suitable for analysis. Some researchers like Ugoagha
(2005) adopted ordinary least square (OLS) model regression in
study of women participation in the National special programme for food security in Abia State. The socio economic characteristics of the women used include average age, education level, household size, labour availability, farm size and farming experience. These variables were used to determine the predictive value and participation level of women in the programme for food security. Oyilimba (2002) also used regression to determine the contribution of women to farm family income in Imo State. Study on labour shortage in Nigerian Agriculture by Okafor (1999) examined how individual farm families tried to maximize the available labour resources. This situation was examined in four villages, representative of the varying population densities across SouthEastern Nigeria (Study Area). He treated the farm size as the dependent variable, and the annual average man-days of family farm labour as independent variable. Regression analysis was used to compute family labour input (Y) on the total farm size per household (X), for 24 farm households in Nnewi, 23 in Agulu, 22 in Atani and 25 in Otuocha. The correlation coefficient of the relationship between the size of farm holding and the amount of family labour input, though positive was generally low. The result indicates that the amount of family labour input does not necessarily determine the size of farmland owned. In his study on labour availability and utilization in rural farming households in Orumba Local Government Area of Anambra State, Okpukpara (1995) used multiple regression to measure the effect of household size and composition on the amount of labour
48 used. Simple regression analysis was used to measure the effect of household income on the amount of labour employed. Among the major findings were that labour supply and sue vary with farm operations inherent in a particular period, crop type, type and source of labour used. He indicated that the major factors that influenced the amount of labour used were farmers’ age, income, household size and farming experience. In this study the multiple regression model will be used to determine the effect of women labour utilization on the value of output of women farmers. The regression analysis has been used in determining the relationship between the dependent and independent variable in previous works as in Nzeuzor (2002) and Ufiem (2002). The regression model is usually stated as follows: Y = f (X1,X2,X3………………………………., Xn) + e Where Y is functionally related to the X’s. Y is the dependent or endogenous variable also known as regress and. The X’s are variable that are pre-determined outside the model and are called independent variable or explanatory or regressors; while F is the functional relationship that indicates the way the X’s are transformed to Y. finally, “e” or “u” is the error term known as the stochastic term. It is introduced to capture the effects of omitted variable, error of measurement error of aggregation and the erratic nature of human (Awoke, 2001). 2.11.2 Multinomial Logit Models Multinomial logit models are models that can handle explanatory variables that are continuous or take different values for different categories of the responses. Generalized logit models, like ordinary regression models, can contain continuous or discrete explanatory variable. Let π j(Xj) denote the probability of response j, j = 1,………J, at the ith setting of values of k explanatory variables xj = (1, xij,…, xik). In terms of response probabilities, the generalized logit mode is πj(xi) =
exp(β ' j x i ) j
∑
(
exp β h' xi
)
h =1
for identifiability, we take β j = 0, which case log[πj (xi)/ πj ((xi)] = β j' x i , j = 1 − 1. An important application of logit models is determining effects of explanatory variable on a subject’s choice of one of a discrete set of options- for instance, the choice of transportation system to work
(drive, bus, subway, bicycle), housing (buy house, buy
49 condominium, rent), primary shopping location (downtown, mail A, mail, B, other), brand of toothpaste. Political party preference, or occupation, models for response variable consisting of a discrete set of choices are called discrete-choice models. In many discrete- choice applications, for a given subject, an explanatory variable takes different values for different response choices. As predictors of choice of transportation system, “Cost” and “transit time to reach destination” take different values for each choice. As predictors of choice of brand of product, “price” and amount spent on advertising” take different values for each choice. Explanatory variables of this type are “characteristics of the choice”, include income, education, and other demographic characteristics. They differ from the usual explanatory variables, for which values remain constant across the choice set. Such variables, “characteristics of the chooser”, include income, education and other demographic characteristics. Maddala (1984) suggested that “application of the model should be limited to situations where the alternatives can plausible be assumed to be distinct and weighed independently in the eyes of each decision-maker.” The multinomial logit model has been used by Theil (1969) to study chains of transportation modes, by Crags and Uhler (1970) to study the number of automobiles demanded, by Uhler and Cragg (1991) to study the structure of asset portfolios of households, and by Schmidt and Strauss (1975b) to study the determinants of occupational choice..” (Maddala, 1984). According to Maddala, if we consider the two studies on occupational choices by Boskin (1974) and Schmidt and Strauss (195b). In the study Boskin, there are several occupations, and each is characterized by three variables: present value of potential earnings, training cost/net worth, and present value of time unemployed. Boskin (1974) obtained a different set of “implicit prices” for the characteristics for white mens, black mens. White womens, and black women. These coefficients tell us the relative valuation of the three characteristics mentioned earlier by these different groups. Also, if we are given a new occupation not considered in the estimation procedure and the characteristics of the new occupation as perceived by an individual, then we can use the estimated coefficients to predict the probability that this individual will join this occupation. Schmidt and Strauss (1975b) considered the multinomial model with individual characteristics: education, experience, race, and sex. After estimating the parameters, one can predict the probability that an individual with a specified set of characteristics will choose any particular occupation. They concluded, on the basis of these results, that there is strong evidence in favour of race and sex discrimination.
50 Onyekuru 2008 used multinomial logit model to determine the socio-economic characteristics affecting household use or non use of alternative energy sources in the urban areas of Enugu State. He found out that the probability that households use fuel wood and charcoal as against kerosene was negatively and insignificantly related with education. 2.11.3 The t-test The t-test is a parametric statistical tool used to test hypothesis about the difference between mean of groups (Spiegel and Stephens, 1991). The t- test is used essentially to determine whether mean X1 and X2 are significantly different at a chosen level of significance. This study will adopt the t-test for the significant difference between the farm labour utilization of women farmers and that of men farmers in Abia State. T-test is used in past works done by Suowari (2004) and Onipede (2003) in Onyekuru (2008) 2.11.4 Likert Rating Scale Technique Likert scales are the four, five, six, seven, eight or nine point scales much used in various fields of research. A statement is given, and the endpoints correspond to agree strong and disagree strongly. Use of the scales is practical and interesting. Scales with an even number of points do not have a midpoint and in that sense force a choice. Four point scale can be labeled as agree strongly, agree somewhat, disagree somewhat and disagree strongly. Five-point Likert scales are perhaps most commonly used. With a five-point scale the points can be labeled, agree strongly, agree somewhat, neutral, disagree somewhat, disagree strongly. Likert scale of 4-point was used by Otitoju (2007) to measure the constraints faced by soybeans farmers in Benue state of Nigeria
51 CHAPTER THREE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1 THE STUDY AREA Abia State is the study area. It lies within Latitudes 4045′ and 6017′ N and Longitudes 7000′ and 8010′E. The State was carved out of the old Imo State in 1991. It is bounded to the North by Enugu and Ebonyi State, to the West by Anambra and Imo States and to the East by Akwa Ibom and Cross River States. The state has a relatively high population density of 328.075 persons per square kilometer given its population of 1.9 million with a total land mass of 5883.775 square kilometer. Most of the land are arable (NPC, 1991; ABSG, 2006). Abia-state has a generally undulating terrain. It is bordered towards South by the alluvial coastal plains, covering most parts of Ukwa East/West L.G.A’s. The plain further stretches towards Aba and extends to the Akwa-Ibom state capital, Uyo. This Southern part is characterized by rainforest vegetation and abundance of liquid mineral resources, oil as well as large belts of wild/plantation palm tree. The State experiences a typical climate with two distinct seasons, the rainy and dry seasons. The rainy season lasts from March to October and the dry season begins in November and ends in February. The mean annual rainfall ranges from 2000 mm to 2500 mm. The temperature ranges between 220C (minimum) and 310C (maximum). Abia State is endowed with abundant fertile land. The basic economic activity in the state is agriculture and over 70% of the indigenes are engaged in it, both for subsistence and income. The major crops grown are cassava, yam, and maize, others include plantain, bananas, and vegetables. Others cash crops include oil palm, kolanut, cocoa, rubber and cashew. Livestock husbandry is also a major farming activity in the State. Apart from Agriculture and mineral resources, there is indigenous entrepreneurial capacity, abundant skilled and unskilled manpower in the state, all of which find expression in the existence of active formal and informal industrial activities in the two major urban towns of Aba and Umuahia. Abia-state is richly endowed with natural resources which include human resources water resources, mineral resources, agricultural resources and tourism resources. There are three agricultural zones in Abia State, namely Aba, Umuahia and Ohafia agricultural zones (ABSG, 2006). 3.2 SAMPLING PROCEDURE A combination of purposive and multi-stage random sampling technique was adopted for this study. Abia state is made up of seventeen (17) Local Government Areas (LGAs)
52 which are grouped into three agricultural zones namely Aba, Umuahia and Ohafia zones. The zones were purposively chosen and studied in order to have maximum coverage of the state and women are highly involved in agricultural production in the zones. Stage 1: Selection of Local Government Areas. In this stage, the list of rural L.G.A. in each zone were collected from Abia ADP Office. From the list, nine (9) rural L.G.As were selected. This involved random selection of three (3) rural Local Government Areas from each of the three (3) agricultural zones. This was to ensure that rural areas are surveyed. Stage 2: Selection of Communities This stage involved random selection of two rural communities from each of the nine (9) rural Local Government Area selected. This amounted to eighteen (18) rural communities that were used for the study. Stage 3: Selection of Villages A list of villages that make up each of the eighteen (18) communities were gotten from the community head. From this list two (2) villages were randomly selected from each of the sampled eighteen (18) communities. This amounted to thirty six (36) villages. Stage 4: Selection of Respondents A list of households farmers within each of the thirty six (36) randomly selected villages gotten from the village heads where there are women farmers was compiled, and from there three (3) household farmers were randomly selected from each village. This amounted to one hundred and eight (108) household farmers. In each selected household, relevant female and male farmer were interviewed. The researcher’s reason for this was because most farm lands are owned by men and women participate in the farm operations. It also helped the researcher to know the contributions made by men and women farmers in order to compare who contributed more labour in crop production). 3.3
DATA COLLECTION Primary data were collected through use of a set of structured pre-tested
questionnaires administered to the farmers by the help of data collectors under the supervision of the researcher. The data included personal and household characteristics,
53 specific farm operations performed, farm problems identified and other farm issues. Secondary data were obtained from published and unpublished materials. 3.4
DATA ANALYSIS Objective (i) was realized using descriptive statistic such as mean, frequency
distribution, percentage and standard deviation. Objective (ii) was realized using Student ttest. Objective (iii) was realized by multinomial logit model. Objective (iv) was realized by multiple regression analysis. Part of objective (v) was realized by descriptive statistic while the other part was by likert scale rating technique. Objective (vi) was realized by descriptive statistics. 3.5
MODEL SPECIFICATION
3.5.1
Student t- Test: This was used to test objective (II) and hypothesis (I). The t- test formular is
t=
x1 − x 2 SD1 SD2 n1 + n2
at n1 + n2 -2 degrees of freedom Where X1
=
Mean labour utilization of women farmers
X2
=
Mean labour utilization of men farmers
SD1
=
Standard deviation of labour utilization for women farmers
SD2
=
Standard deviation of labour utilization for men farmers
n1
=
No of women farmers
n2
=
No of men farmers
Level of significance 0.05 3.5.2
Multinomial logit model This model was used to address objective (iii)
In the multinomial logit model, according to Enete (2003) a set of coefficients B1, B2, B3, B4 B5 can be estimated as Pr( Z = 1) = Pr( Z = 2) =
e xβ (1) + e xβ ( 2 )
e xβ (1) + e xβ ( 3 ) + e xβ ( 4 ) + e xβ ( 5 )
e xβ (1) + e xβ ( 2 )
e xβ ( 2 ) + e xβ ( 3 ) + e xβ ( 4 ) + e xβ ( 5 )
54
Pr( Z = 3) =
e xβ (1) + e xβ ( 2 )
e xβ ( 3) + e xβ ( 3) + e xβ ( 4 ) + e xβ ( 5)
e xβ (1) + e xβ ( 2 )
e xβ ( 4 ) + e xβ ( 3 ) + e xβ ( 4 ) + e xβ ( 5 )
e xβ (1) + e xβ ( 2 )
e xβ ( 5 ) + e xβ ( 3) + e xβ ( 4 ) + e xβ ( 5 )
Pr( Z = 4) = Pr( Z = 5) =
The model however is unidentified in sense that there is more than one solution to β (1) , β ( 2 ) ,
β ( 3) , β ( 4 ) , β (5 ) that leads to the same probabilities for Z = 1, Z = 2, and Z = 3, Z = 4, Z = 5. To identify the model, one β (1) , β ( 2 ) , β (3) , β ( 4 ) , β (5 ) is arbitrarily set to 0. That is, if we arbitrarily set β ( 4 ) = 0 the remaining coefficients β (1) , β ( 2 ) , β ( 3) , β ( 4 ) would measure the change relative to the Z = 4 group. In order words we would be deterring the factors that affect labour utilization at different farm operations. (1 2 3 & 4) setting B5 = 0, the above equations become Pr( Z = 1) =
e xβ (1)
e xβ (1) + e x β ( 2 ) + e xβ ( 3 ) + e xβ ( 4 ) + 1
e xβ (1)
e xβ ( 2 ) + e xβ ( 2 ) + e xβ ( 3 ) + e xβ ( 4 ) + 1
e xβ (1)
e xβ ( 3) + e xβ ( 2) + e xβ ( 3) + e xβ ( 4 ) + 1
e xβ (1)
e xβ ( 4 ) + e xβ ( 2 ) + e xβ ( 3 ) + e xβ ( 4 ) + 1
e xβ (1)
e xβ ( 5) + e xβ ( 2 ) + e xβ (3) + e xβ ( 4) + 1
Pr( Z = 2) = Pr( Z = 3) = Pr( Z = 4) = Pr( Z = 5) =
The relative probability of Z = 1 to base category is Pr( Z = 1) = e xβ (1) . If we call this the relative likelihood and assume that X and β k(1) are Pr( Z = 5)
vectors equal to (x1, x2,…; xk) and ( β 1(1) β 2(1) ..., β k(1) ) respectively. The ratio of relative likelihood for one unit change in xi relative to the base category is then ( 1)
e B1
X1
+ ... + β1(1) ( x1 + 1) + ... + β k(1) xk e
β1(1) X 1 +...+ β K(1) XK
(1)
= e β1
Thus, the exponential value of a coefficient is the relative likelihood ratio for one unit change in the corresponding variable (StataCorp.1999). In Enete (2003).
55
Definition of Variables From the foregoing, the dependent variables in this estimation is defined to have five possible values: 1, which denotes clearing of land; 2, denoting cultivation of land; 3, denoting planning of crops; 4, denoting weeding 5, denoting harvesting of the crops. The labour utilization in different farm operations may be related to household size, Hs; Level of Education, Ed; Age Ag; income level, In; occupation Oc; household head Hd; Distance from farm Ds; Hs
=
Household size (number)
Ed
=
Educational level of women (years)
Hd
=
Household head (1=female, O male)
Oc
=
Occupation (farming =1, otherwise O)
In
=
Income (N)
Ag
=
Age of women farmer (years)
Ds
=
Distance from farm (km)
Household Size Household size of a family is very important in determining the amount of women labour to be utilized in the farm. If the family is large, the labour is shared among the households and the amount of labour utilized by women farmers will be reduced especially where there are more mens in the family then womens. The participation of women in different farm operations was determined by the number of people in the house or the number of mens in the household.
Education level The variable used is the number of years spent in school (Formal Education) by the women. Educated women tend to do other jobs than working in the farm.
Occupation The primary occupation of women plays vital roles in determining their participation in crop production. Women farmers may tend to engage more in different farm operations than women in civil services or other occupations.
Income level The income status of women is a vital variable in determining the labour utilization in farm work. It is expected that a higher income earner will not like to work in the farm or participate in tedious level of farm operations
56
Household head Female headed households are likely to utilize more labour in farm work then male headed households. It may be that the woman is not married or that he is widowed, separated or divorced and the management decision is on her. She utilizes more labour in differentfarm operations than the women in a men headed household.
Age The age of a female farmer will also determine the amount of labour to be utilized in different level of production. The older women will like to participate in levels that are less tedious than the younger women.
Distance from farm The distances of a farmland from the house will also determining the level to participate. Women will work more on farmland closer to their houses like their backyards and surrounding than the farm land that is far from their houses.
Apriori expectations Evidence from other research carried out in this area show the following expectation; large household size is expected to be negatively related to women labour utilization. The more people in a household the less work for the woman. This is in agreement with Onyilimba (2002). Education was found to be negatively related to women labour utilization by (Enyinaya 2007) and it is expected to be so in this work. This is because higher education attainment might make the woman not to engage in much farm work. For income it is expected to have positive sign for women low income earners and negative sign for high income earners. This is because the low income earner will like to do more of the work by herself since she cannot afford to hire labour all the time. This was confirmed by (Ufiem 2002). Occupation will have a positive sign if the primary occupation of the women is farming and vise versa. This is because women farmers will utilize more labour in the farm than women civil servants and others in other jobs. A female headed household is expected to be positively related to female labour utilization because she will participate more in different levels of farm operations than a woman in a male headed household.
57 Age of a female farmer will be negative to women labour utilization if the woman is young and vice versa. This is because a younger woman will participate more in different farm operations than an older woman. Distance from farm is expected to have negative relationship to women labour utilization. The closer the farm to the female farmer the more she will engage her labour in different farm operations and vice versa.
Estimation Procedure Five steps are distinguished in the level of participation. A step is assigned one if the women participate in clearing, two if it is cultivation; three; if it is planting, four if it is weeding and five if it is harvesting. With these five possible options step 1,2,3,4&5 defined for the different specific farm operation multinomial logit model is used for the analysis. Thus, the independent variables determine the women participation in each specific farm operation.
3.5.3
Multiple Regression The production function model that was used to achieve objective (iv) is implicitly
specified as follows: Y = f (X1,X2,X3,X4,X5, X6,X7,X8,X9,X10, X11,X12,X13,)+e Where Y
=
Revenue (N)
X1
=
Women labour utilization in clearing (mandays)
X2
=
Women labour utilization in cultivating (mandays)
X3
=
Women labour utilization in planting (mandays)
X4
=
Women labour utilization in weeding (mandays)
X5
=
Women labour utilization in harvesting (mandays)
X6
=
Age of women farmers (years)
X7
=
Farming experience (years)
X8
=
Educational level (number of years spent in school)
X9
=
Occupation (Dummy farming = 1 otherwise = 0)
X10
=
Household size (number)
X11
=
Household head (Dummy female = 1 otherwise = 0)
X12
=
Farm size (number of hectares)
X13
=
Distance of farm from home (kilometer)
e
=
Error term
58 Three functional forms of the model were tried; namely linear, semi-logarithmic and double logarithmic. The double log form gave the best fit in terms of R2 value and F-ratio and conformity with apriori expectation. It was therefore selected and used for the analysis. The double log form is expressed implicitly.
Double-Logarithmic Form Log
Y = log a+b1logx1 + b2logx2 + b3logx3 + b4logx4 + b5logx5 + b6logx6 + b7logx7 + b8logx8 + b9logx9 + b10logx10 + b11logx11 + b12logx12 + b13logx13 + e. Where a
3.5.3
=
intercept.
b1-b13 =
parameters/Coefficients to be estimated and
e
error terms.
=
Likert Scale Rating Technique This was used to analyze objective (v). Four-point Likert scale is an even number scale, which normally force a choice on the
respondents since there is no mid-point to make the respondent indifferent. Likert scale rating of a 4-point rating was used in this work to measure the level of constraints facing women farmers in the area. The grading was in this order: very important = 4; important = 3; less important = 2; not important = 1. The constraints faced by women farmers were ranked using a weighted mean ( x ). The mean score of the respondents based on the 4-point scale was 4+3+2+1 = 10/4 = 2.50. Using the interval scale of 0.05, the upper limit, cut-off point was 2.50+0.05 = 2.55. The lower limit was 2.50–0.05 = 2.45. Based on the limit, any mean score below 2.45 (i.e. MS < 2.45) was taken as “not important” constraints in women labour utilization. Those between 2.45 and 2.55 were considered either “important” or “less important” (i.e. 2.45 ≤ MS ≤ 2.55). Finally, any mean score greater than 2.55 (i.e. MS > 2.55) was considered “very important” constraints in women labour utilization.
59
CHAPTER FOUR RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 4.1
SOCIO ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS OF RESPONDENTS Descriptions of some of the relevant socio economic characteristics of the female
respondents are presented below. The socio-economic characteristics considered included age, marital status, occupation, educational attainment, farming experience, farm size, distance of farm from home, annual income, income derived from crop production and household size.
4.1.1
Age of female respondents The frequency distribution of respondents according to age is shown in table 4.1. The
result showed that majority of the female respondents fall within the age of 41-60 years indicating that there was relatively high proportion of middle aged and old farmers in the villages engaged in agriculture. Female labour force participation by age in Nigeria showed that 76.5% of the total labour force falls below 30 years while 21.7% of the total labour force were 30-64 years. (FOS, 1995). But the result of this report shows that the trend has changed. Participatory rate in agriculture now appeared to increase with age. This is to say, the older the female farmers the more they participated in farming. This is because rural-urban migration of able bodied teenagers and young adults had taken place leaving behind only aged adult members of the household in the rural areas. Also, most of the older women were married and have their husbands and children to care for. Again, some of the older women are retired from civil service and therefore resort to farming so as to make ends meet. The average age of the respondents was 52.8.
Table 4.1: The frequency distribution of respondents according to age Age range 21-30
Frequency 12
Percentage 11
31-40 41-50 51-60 60 and above
18 39 29 10
17 36 27 9
Total
108
100
Source: Field survey data (2010) 4.1.2
Marital Status of Female Respondents The result of the marital status of the respondents is shown on table 4.2 below.
60
Table 4.2: The frequency distribution of respondents according to marital status Marital Status
Frequency
Percentage
Single Married
3 74
2 69
Separated/Divorced Widowed
7 24
7 22
Total
108
100
Source: Field data (2010) Table 4.2 shows that majority (69%) of the women respondents was married, 22% were widows and 7% were separated/divorced. In the traditional Igbo society, women depended on their husbands for land and farm inputs for all their farming activities. In the absence of a woman’s husband the extended family shift the responsibility to the woman by giving her the social and emotional support in her farm business (Gordon, 1980). This implied that women whether married, widowed or separated still received one type of help or the other from either their husbands or members of their families.
4.1.3
Primary and Secondary Occupations of Respondents The frequency distribution of respondents according to primary and secondary
occupations is shown in tables 4.3 and 4.4. The study grouped the female respondents according to their status in farming and time spent on the work. Those who spent more than half of their time on the farm and made most of their income from farm work were classified as full time farmers while those who spent less than half of their time on the farm and made most of their income from non-farm occupations were regarded as part-time farmers. Based on the above definition, table 4.3 shows that 65 percent of the respondents were full time farmers while 35 percent were part-time farmers.
Table 4.3: The frequency distribution of respondents according to status in farming Farming Status
Frequency
Percentage
Part-time
38
35
Full time
70
65
Total
108
100
Source: Field survey data (2010) This showed that most of the women farmers interviewed invariably had farming as their primary occupation and spent a greater portion of their time on it.
61 Table 4.4 below shows that 87% of the part-time farmers spent a greater part of their hours in non-farm activities such as teaching, trading and civil service.
Table 4.4: The frequency distribution of respondent according to secondary occupation Secondary Occupation Part-time Full time Total F
%
F
%
F
%
Petty trading
10
26
25
36
35
33
Sewing
5
13
5
7
10
9
Local weaving/craft
-
-
3
4
3
3
23
61
-
-
23
21
None
-
-
37
53
37
34
Total
38
100
70
100
108
100
Teaching/Civil service
Source: Field Survey data (2010) For the full time farmers, 53 % had taken up farming as their only occupation and nothing else. However, few of the respondents on full time got themselves occupied with some non-farming work mainly petty trading (36%) occasionally carried out on market days and other days that they did not feel like working on the farm. Most of them reported that they supplemented their income and met basic family needs from such non farming activities.
4.1.4
Educational attainment of female respondents Education influences women’s participation in crop production. The more educated
women are better employed and do not participate actively in farming. The frequency distribution of respondents according to educational attainment is shown in Table 4.5. The result shows that 45% of the women never went to school at all.
Table 4.5: The frequency distribution of respondents according to formal education attained Educational Attainment Frequency Percentage No formal education Primary school attempted Primary school completed Secondary school attempted Secondary school completed Others e.g. TC II, NCE
49 20 17 10 6 5
45 19 16 9 6 5
Total
108
100
Source: Field survey data (2010)
62 The majority of the farmers (64 %) were illiterate and primary school drop outs. The others who completed higher level of formal education farmed mainly on part-time basis because they had other non-farm employment sources of income. It could be seen that women farmers in the study area who had no formal education worked full time in the farm. But as the level of formal education attainment increased, the involvement in farm appeared to decrease correspondingly. The high level of illiteracy is an indication that the respondents require some type of adult education.
4.1.5
Farming Experience of Female Farmers The frequency distribution of respondents according to farming experience is shown
in Table 4.6. It could be seen from the table that more than half of the sampled farmers (51%) had spent more than 20 years in farm work.
Table 4.6: The frequency distribution of respondents according to years of farming experience Years of farming experience
Frequency
Percentage
1-5
8
7
6-10
12
11
11-15
15
14
16-20
18
17
21 and above
55
51
Total
108
100
Source: Field survey data, 2010 The remaining half which consisted more of the educated farmers spent less than 20 years in farming. This group of respondents was the part-time farmers who spent more time on nonfarm activities but less time in agriculture. The mean year of experience on farming for the respondent was 17 years.
4.1.6
Farm Size The distribution of the female respondents according to farm size is shown in Table
4.7.
63
Table 4.7: The frequency distribution of respondents according to farm size Size of farm/ha.
Frequency
Percentage
12 No response Total Source: Field survey data, 2010
Frequency 22 63 19 4 1 108
Percentage 20 58 18 4 0.01 100
4.2 SPECIFIC CROP PRODUCTION OPERATIONS THAT UTILIZE WOMEN LABOUR IN THE STUDY AREA The respondents’ view were sought on the task they performed directly on crop production themselves, task they required the assistance of their husbands as well as that of other family members and finally those they hired labour to execute. The percentage distribution of respondents according to crop production per farming season is shown in Table 4.12. Data on the table indicated 12 tasks under crop production operation which more than half of the women farmers performed directly on the farm.
Table 4.12: Percentage distribution of respondents by farm operations by type of labour used Crop production operations Bush clearing Bush burning Removing burnt materials Nursery preparation Making moulds/ridges Planting Transplanting Manuring Staking Weeding Harvesting Construction of Storage Facilities Source: Field survey data, 2010
Self (%)
Husband (%)
10 28 55 57 14 63 58 55 51 60 70 14
14 25 7 23 18 10 12 17 21 13 45
Other family labour (%) 15 18 28 6 18 12 24 14 11 17 11 8
Hired Labour (%) 61 29 10 14 50 15 6 14 17 23 6 33
Total % 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
The tasks included removal of burnt materials (55 %), nursery preparation (57 %), planting (63 %), transplanting (58 %), weeding (60 %), manuring (55 %), staking (51 %) and harvesting (70 %).
66 The husbands helped mainly on nursery preparation, staking and construction of storage facilities. Tasks such as bush clearing, ridging, weeding and construction of storage facilities were supplemented with hired labour. It could be summarized that a greater proportion of all the operations in the farm were executed by the women farmers. For tasks which required extra energy or appeared to be very strenuous, hired labour was used. Also in cases where family labour was not available and the tasks to be performed were beyond the ability of the women, hired labour was also employed. Thus men and hired labour contributed more input in such tedious operations as mould making/ridging and bush clearing. Harvesting had the highest participation percentage. This is because the women harvested almost all the crops except yam that was done by men. The harvesting was also done in piece meal and that contributed to the highest level of participation. This was followed by planting and weeding which is mainly women’s job. It is worthy to note that the women in the area exchanged labour when it comes to planting and weeding in order to help finish each others farm work on time.
4.3 MEN AND WOMEN LABOUR UTILIZATION AT DIFFERENT LEVELS OF CROP PRODUCTION OPERATIONS IN THE STUDY AREA This section is used to test the null hypothesis which states that there is no significant difference in labour utilization of men and women farmers in various types of farm operations. The null hypothesis was rejected with respect to clearing, planting, weeding and harvesting but accepted in the case of cultivation. Table 4.13 presents the result.
Table 4.13: The mean values of hours spent by men and women respondents per farming season in different farm operations of crop production Level of farm operation
Women N=108
Men N=58
X SD X Women Men Clearing 52.07 82.13 69.50 Cultivating 58.11 75.59 59.45 Planting 76.12 93.52 28.45 Weeding 80.85 98.84 11.32 Harvesting 88.99 76.45 32.05 Critical values 1.66 at 10%; 2.83 at 1%; df 165. *=10% ***=1% Source: Field survey data, 2010
Mean difference b/w men & women hours spent
T-value
17.43 3.34 47.67 41.55 56.94
1.676* 0.399 4.581*** 6.860*** 4.303***
SD 83.20 72.76 49.11 39.30 45.39
67 The mean values of hours spent by women and men in clearing were 52.07 and 69.50 respectively. The t-value (1.68) is significant at 10% probability level because it is greater than the tabulated one which is 1.66. It means that men spent more hours in clearing than women. Abia State is among the rain forest fallow vegetation with thick and over grown grass land. Clearing requires more energy and is strenuous that the women participate minimally. This is in agreement with Pingali et al (1987) that land clearing is more power intensive under the rain forest vegetation than under savanna grass fallow vegetation. Also, Swindel (1985) reported that land clearing is a heavy job and is male dominated activity in Africa. The mean hours spent by women farmers in cultivation were 58.11 while the men spent 59.45 on the average. Although, the men participated a little than the women, the tvalue was not significant. This is because most of the cultivation done by men was for yam planting which was on the men’s farm. The women cultivated their own farms for other crops by making flat seed bed for planting. It is worthy of note that in the study area, the women’s method of cultivation was to make flat seed bed and plant at the same time. It was very few of women that hired labour to make moulds, seed beds. This is in line with Dey (1984) who reported that women were entirely responsible for organizing the labour for their own personal plots and that they generally did most of the work themselves. This is contrary to Swindell (1985) who reported that land cultivation is a heavy job and is male dominated activity. The mean values of hours spent by women and men in planting were 76.12 and 28.45 respectively, weeding were 80.82 and 11.32 respectively, and harvesting were 88.99 and 32.05 respectively. The t-values (-4.581, -6.860, and -4.303 for planting, weeding and harvesting respectively) were significant at 1% probability level because they are greater than the tabulated one which is 2.83. It implies that women spent more hours in planting, weeding and harvesting than men in the study area. Martins (1984) observed that the increase in oil palm production in Ngwa area of Abia State absorbed men labour, leaving food crop production to women. Although, Nweke (1991) reported that gender distribution of farm labour supply varied widely from one place to another, however the report of this study agrees with Enete et al (2002) who reported that females provided more labour than males in common field.
68
4.4 FACTORS AFFECTING WOMEN PARTICIPATION IN FARM OPERATIONS 4.4.1 Socio-economic characteristics affecting the labour utilization of women in different farm operations The result of the socio-economic characteristics affecting labour utilization by women in different farm operations is shown in Table 4.14.
Table 4.14: Result of Multinominal Logit Model Analysis of Women Participation in Different Farm Operations of Crop Production. Variables
Clearing
Cultivating
Planting
Weeding
1
2
3
4
Household size
-0.3880 (1.93)**
-0.4510 (1.98`) **
0.1046 (0.86)NS
0.2550 (1.30)NS
Education
-0.1180 (1.64)*
0.0268 (0.25) NS
-0.0154 (0.20) NS
0.0479 (0.56) NS
Hhd (headship position)
0.3086 (0.20) NS
0.6913 (0.37) NS
1.0349 (1.67)*
2.284 (1.56)*
Occupation
-2.3710 (1.93)**
0.2142 (0.16) NS
2.479 (1.98)**
1.0960 (0.88) NS
Income
-5.7700 (1.65)*
-4.68 (0.09) NS
-1.18 (0.28)NS
-2.0200 (0.33) NS
Age
0.0167 (0.59) NS
0.3550 (0.90) NS
0.0065 (0.25)NS
-0.1177 (1.62) *
DS
0.2597 (0.41) NS
-2.2680 (1.63)*
0.414 (0.62) NS
-0.9590 (1.25) NS
Constant
0.3441 (0.12)
2.350 (0.68)
1.269 (0.49)
-4.1020 (1.45)
LR Chi2 (28)=47.64**, Pseudo R2 = 0.216, Log likert hood = -82.454 The base activity/outcome index is harvesting ** = significant at 5 % probability level * = significant at 10 % probability level Ns = not significant Values in parenthesis are t-values Source = calculated from field survey data, 2010
From the above result, participation in harvesting operations was the base farm activity for women. It is because most women participated in harvesting which could be reason why the multi-nomial logit regression used it as the outcome index (base activity). It can be recalled that small scale farmers harvest their crops at different times depending on the
69 maturity time of the crops and also at piece meal. Harvesting of farm produces may not require much energy except in the case of yam and cassava. Thus women can enjoy harvesting a lot of farm crops other than yam. Afolabi (1996) stated that of all farming activities in which women are actively involved, their level of involvement in crop harvesting is dominating. In comparison with household size, the probability that the women engage in clearing and cultivation as against harvesting was negatively and highly significantly with the household size of the women farmers. The Coefficient and t-value was -0.3880 and 1.93 for clearing and -0.4510 and 1.98 for cultivation respectively. These t-values were significant at 5% probability level. It implies that any increase in household size would reduce women’s willingness to participate in clearing and cultivation compared with participation in harvesting. Therefore, women possessing large family size would less likely participate in the clearing and cultivation. The relative large household size in the study area reduced women farmers’ labour utilization in the above mentioned farm operations. It is possible that the large family size provided more family labour that reduced the participation of women in these farm operations. This is in agreement with Nweke, (1994) who reported that large household size reduces the participation of women in farm operations. The finding also confirmed the assertion of Bamine et al, (2002) that large family size was associated with greater labour force for timely operation of farm activities. Educational attainment of the women negatively affected the likelihood of their participation in bush clearing as against their participation in harvesting. The coefficient of educational attainment was -0.015 with t-value of 1.64 which was significant at 10% probability level. It implies that women possessing higher education would less likely engage in bush clearing. This is in agreement with Nzeuzor. (2002) who concluded that the higher the educational attainment of the farmers the lower their participation in farm operations.. Women’s household heads positively affected the willingness of the women to participate in planting and weeding. Their coefficient were 1.0349 with t-value of 1.67 and 2.284 with t-value of 1.56 respectively which were significant at 10% probability level. Women who are heads of their households were divorcees or widows in most cases. The result implies that such women will most likely engage in planting and weeding than women in male headed households. This is contrary to Enete (2002) who said that the male headed households applied significantly more labour per unit area of their crops than female headed households in Africa. The result agrees with Palmer (1991) who observed that female headed
70 household do not have much available household labour as male headed household, leading the women to utilizing more labour than the men. Farming as an occupation of the women positively affected the utilization of women labour in planting with coefficient of 2.479 with t-value of 1.98 which is significant at 5% probability level. Majority of the women farmers had farming as their primary occupation and participated actively in planting. Ekunakeme (1999) reported that about 70% of the economically active populations involved in food production are women. It implies that increase in the number of full time women farmers will increase their labour utilization in planting which agrees with apriori expectation. Occupation also negatively affected utilization of women labour in clearing with coefficient of -2.371 and t-value of 1.93 and also significant at 5% probability level. Women whose major occupation is farming may have large farm size which will require hired labour for clearing. This may account for the reason why the coefficient is negative Annual income of the women had a negative relationship with women’s likelihood to participate in clearing as against participation in harvesting. Its coefficient was -5.770 and tvalue of 1.65 which was significant at 10% probability level. This implies that women possessing lower income will most likely engage in bush clearing while those possessing higher income will less likely engage in bush clearing. This agrees with Ufiem (2000) assertion that low income farmers participate more in farming activity. Age of women farmers had a negative relationship with the probability of the women participating in weeding. Its coefficient was -0.1177 with t value of 0.62. indicating that younger women will participate more actively in weeding than older women. This finding collaborates with that of Obasi (2005) that old age reduces the active participation of women in farm operations. Distance to farm of the women farmers negatively affected the women’s willingness to participate in cultivation. Its coefficient was -2.268 while its t value was 1.68. It also implies that women whose residences are very far to the farm are less likely to participate in cultivation. It may be due to the fact that traveling long distance will reduce the net energy to do the farm work. Therefore, the null hypothesis which states that the socio-economic characteristics of the women farmers have no significant effect in their participation in different farm operations was rejected.
4.5
EFFECTS OF WOMEN LABOUR UTILIZATION ON FARMERS’ TOTAL OUTPUT/REVENUE. In order to determine the effect of women labour utilization on value of output
(Revenue), a multiple regression analysis was employed.
71 Among the various functional forms (Linear, Semi-logarithmic and double logarithmic) that were tried, the double log form gave a higher R2 values with a relatively low standard error (0.22). It best represented farmers experience. The signs of the coefficients were consistent with apriori expectations and also greater numbers of variables were significant. The double log was also accepted because of the significant F-ratio (2.002) and R2 (0.67) which means that 67% of the variables of farm revenue of the women are predictable by the equation. Table 4.15 shows the result.
Table 4.15: Estimates of the determinants of revenue for women labour utilization 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
Variables Clearing Cultivating Planting Weeding Harvesting Age Experience Education Occupation Household size Household head Farm size Distance Constant R2 St’d error of estimate F-ratio
Double log 0.001 (0.135)NS 0.001 (0.135)NS 0.004 (1.968)** -0.001 (2.015)** 0.002 (1.998)** -0.447 (2.345)** 0.084 (2.161)** -0.025 (0.655)NS 0.020 (0.212 )** 0.156 (2.391)** 0.104 (1.234)NS 0.235 (1.297) -0.111 (1.963)** 7.22. (6.902)* 0.665 0.222 2.002**
Semi log 0.977 (0.429) 0.249 (0.212)NS 3.273 (2.040)** -0.646 (0.580)NS -1.388 (0.978)NS -338.168 (2.367)** 242.291 (0.868)NS -22.814 (0.810)NS 1.197 (0.17)NS 120.189 (2.457)** 73.284 (1.160)NS -166.062(1.314)NS 86.227 (0.899)NS 1189.73 (1.518)NS 0.357 166.590 1.248NS
Linear 0.697 (0.506)NS 0.198 (0.202)NS 2.495 (1.758)** -0.287 (0.314)NS -1.216 (1.017)NS -8.543 (3.013)** -1.479 (0.066)NS -4.961 (0.216)NS -3.989 (0.062)NS 16.551 (2.556)** 70.080 (1.323)NS 114.881(1.703)** 45.338 (1.143)NS 877.540 (4.111)* 0.422 153.693 1.947**
(Figures in brackets are the t-values) ***, **, * indicates probability level at 1%, 5% and 10% respectively Note: 1 manday = 1 womanday
Source: Computed from field survey data, 2010 Apart from variables X6, X8, and X13 which had negative signs, all other variables (that is X1, X2, X3, X4, X5, X7, X9, X10, X11 and X12) were positive hence they have positive effect on output. The implication of this positive signs of coefficient is that increase in any of these variables will increase the output. The coefficients of X3, X4, X5, X6, X10, X12 were statistically significant at 5% level. Clearing, cultivating, planting, weeding and harvesting had a positive relationship with output. It implies that there is an increasing output or revenue with increase in participating in these farm operations. This is consistent with Ezeani, (1997) that increase in farm operation labour will also increase income.
72 Planting, weeding and harvesting were significant at 5 % level because of their higher participation in these farm operations. This result is consistent with Adetonwe (1998) when he reported that women perform less tedious but labourous and time consuming work in the farm, like planting, weeding, harvesting, processing and marketing. It implies that the hours spent on planting, weeding and harvesting operations have a positive relationship with the women farmers’ revenue. It means that women who spent more hours in the above mentioned farm operations will get more income. It is possible because planting involves replacement of non-germinated seeds and those picked by birds. Weeding involves removing those weeds that will affect crop production while harvesting is gathering the mature and ripe crops. If harvesting did not take place at the right time, birds and rodent can damage the crops thereby reducing the farm revenue. Age of the farmer had a negative relationship with their income. Its coefficient was 0.44 while t- value was 2.345 which was significant at 5% probability level. It means that as the age of the women farmers increased, their income decreases. This result is in agreement with Osakwe (2006) who reported that there is a declining productivity with old age. As the farmer gets older the ability to do farm work reduces thereby reducing her income. Also adoption of innovation declines with increased age; the older category in the society are considered to be conservative, traditional and not amenable to change such that interest and ventureness declines with increased age. This finding also agrees with Ayemi (1995) that the major impediment to improved production hinged on socio-economic variables of farmers for which age is most significant. The significance of the variable is as a result that majority of the farmers were in their middle age and were still productive. Farming experience had a positive relationship with output but was significant at 5% probability level.. It implies that output increases with increase in farming experience over the years i.e. as the farmer remain in farming, they gain more experience. This is in line with Ufiem, 2002 that the more farmers gain experience the more knowledge and technical ideas they have to tackle farm production problems. Ayemi (1995) also opined that farming experience encourages acquisition and utilization of farm innovations and hence increase the food production and income. The significance was because majority of the farmers had many years of farming experience. Occupation has a positive relationship with output and was not significant at 5%. Given that occupation is a dummy variable with farming=1 and otherwise=0. It implies that increase in number of women farmers with farming as their primary occupation would
73 increase participation in farming and increase income. The significance is as a result that majority of the farmers had farming as their primary occupation. Household size had a positive relationship with women farmers’ income. Its coefficient is 0.235 while the t-value is 2.391 which is significant at 5 % probability level. It implies that larger family size would possess higher income from farming operations. This is consistent with aprori expectation that larger household size eases labour constraints thereby leading to increase in productivity and income of the household; but contrary to Onyemeaku and Nwaru (2005). Distance of farm from home had a negative relationship with the women’s income. Its coefficient is -0.11 while t-value is 1.963 which is significant at 5% probability level. This implies that an increase in the distance of farm from home would lead to decline in income. This is in agreement with Olayide and Atobatele, (1991) who reported that women would participate more in farms nearer to their homes than farms that are very far from home. The significance of the variable is as a result that majority of the farmers, had their farms close to their houses. The coefficient of determination otherwise known as R-square (R2) has a value of 0.67. This means that 67% of the variations in the endogenous variables (y) accounted for or explained by the variation in the exogenous variables (X’s) while the remaining 33% was due to error. The F* ratio of 2.002 which is greater than the theoretical F.05 that is, F-tab of 1.96 indicates that the overall regression equation was significant at 5% level of probability. Therefore the research hypothesis which states that women labour utilization did not have significant effect on output was rejected.
4.6
FARM CONSTRAINTS Likert scale of 4 point rating was used to measure the level of constraints facing
women farmers in the study area. The grading was in this order: very serious=4, serious=3, less serious=2, and not serious=1. the set criterion was 2.50. A mean value of 2.50 and above indicated a very serious constraint to the women farmers. Any mean value of below 2.50 was considered as not a serious problem to the farmers. The result of the opinion of the women farmers as regards the problems they faced in crop production is presented in Table 4.16.
74
Table 4.16: Distribution of respondents according to farm constraints identified. Constants
F
X
SD
Decision
Lack of finance
108
4.00
0.4
VS
Lack of extension services
68
2.50
2.0
VS
Lack of inputs
78
2.90
1.8
VS
Lack of storage facilities
81
2.90
1.8
VS
Lack of credit and loan
105
3.90
0.5
VS
Lack of infrastructure
81
3.00
1.0
VS
Negative attitude of women
49
1.80
2.6
NS
Illiteracy
57
2.10
2.2
NS
Pest and disease
76
2.80
1.9
VS
High cost of labour
77
2.83
1.9
VS
Transportation problem
72
2.65
2.0
VS
Land tenure problem
72
2.65
2.0
VS
Low motivation
27
1.0
2.9
NS
Poor and seasonal road network
70
2.60
2.0
VS
Price fluctuation of produce
86
3.20
0.8
VS
Difficulty in marketing produce
84
3.10
0.9
VS
High spoilage
92
3.40
0.7
VS
Tediousness of most farm operations Lack of mechanization of farm operations Small sized farm plots
72
2.65
2.0
VS
66
2.50
1.8
VS
103
3.80
0.6
VS
VS= Very Serious, NS= Not Serious, Note: Multiple responses were recorded. Source: Computed from field survey data, 2010.
Table 4.16 above shows that 17 out of 20 constraints mentioned above were regarded as very serious problems. Their mean values were above the set criteria of 2.50. Lack of finance was the most serious problem with mean value of 4.00. Fabiyi et al, (2007) revealed that lack of financial assistance limited women’s opportunity for broader participation in agriculture. Other farm constraints viewed very serious included lack of credit and loan (3.90), small sized farm plots (3.80), high spoilage (3.40), price fluctuation of produce(3.20), lack of infrastructure (3.00), lack of farm inputs and storage facilities (2.90), cost of labour (2.83), land tenure system and pest and disease (20.80), transportation problem and
75 technology of most farm operation (2.65), lack of mechanization of farm operation and lack of extension service (2.50) were also perceived as serious problems militating against the production of the respondents in crop production. Illiteracy, negative attitude of women and low motivation were not serious problems and the least was low motivation with mean value of 1.0. Most of the respondents had their farm plots scattered at different locations within and outside the village. With the poor road networks and lack of means of transportation in the rural areas, majority of the respondents spent much time and labour trekking and carrying products to and fro the farm. Again, some of the respondents sold their farm products at a time they would not have loved to do so because they could not preserve them. Since most agricultural produce are perishable items, without the necessary storage and preservative measures, some of them complained of deterioration and loss of quantity of products when they made attempt to store them. Another area the respondents expressed concern was the constant changes in the price of planting materials with the unit price of planting materials such as seed yams, maize, okro, cassava cuttings among others increasing daily. Some of the respondents reported that they could no longer afford to buy them because of insufficient farm capital. They rather limit themselves to materials from previous farm work. It could be said then that all these farm production constraints identified affected productive capabilities of the respondents in their farm work. This agrees with Nzeuzor, 2002 who reported that farm constraint affects productive capabilities of farmers.
4.7
REASONS WHY PREVIOUS INTERVENTION MEASURES DID NOT ACHIEVE MUCH SUCCESS From 1976 till date, one programme or the other were established by government to
help people or especially women to increase their food production activities. It is worthy of note that none of these programmes achieved the aim by which it was established. Programmes like Women in Agriculture (WIA), Better Life for Rural Women (BLFRW), National Special Programme for Food Security in Nigeria (NSPFS), Family Support Programme (FSP) amongst others have taken place. This study investigated the respondents participation in these programmes and other extension and community development programmes as shown in Table 4.17. Thereafter, respondents opinion were sought to identify why such programmes did not achieve much success.
76
Table 4.17: Distribution of respondents according to participation in extension and rural development programmes
National Accelerated Food Production Programme (NAFPP)
F 8
% 7
Never Participated F % 100 93
Green Revolution Programme (GRP)
2
2
106
98
Directorate for Food Road and Rural Infrastructure (DFRRI)
-
-
108
100
Better Life for Rural Women (BLFRW)
22
20
87
80
Family Support Programme (FSP)
16
15
92
85
Family Economic Advancement Programme (FEAP)
-
-
108
100
Operation Feed the Nation (OFN)
-
-
108
100
Isusu/Age grade
65
60
43
40
Women in Agriculture (WIA)
16
15
92
85
Women Association
70
65
38
35
Village Co-operative
21
25
81
75
Extension and Rural Development programmes
Participated
Source: Field survey data, 2010 As shown in table 4.17, most of the respondents had never participated in any extension, agricultural or government development programmes designed to improve the welfare and production capabilities of farmers. The programmes that received some level of participation were women association (65 %) and isusu/age grade (60 %). These are groups of married women within the same compound or village who meet from time to time and make contributions to help one another. It could be said that these programmes were not planned for and directed to women farmers hence the low level of participation. This low level of participation or non participation in these programmes contributed to the women’s low crop yield and low income .Oyilimba (2002) reported that farmers who actively participated in both community development and extension programmes were generally better farmers than those who never participated. According to him such farmers adopted more profit-yielding agricultural innovations than those who were never associated with any organization.
Respondents
opinion were sought to identify why such interventions did not work out. The result is presented in table 4.18.
77
Table 4.18: Reasons why previous strategies did not work Reasons Lack of government commitment
*F 100
% 93
Lack of extension assistance
40
37
High illiteracy level of women
10
9
Negative attitude of women farmers
20
19
Poor implementation of agricultural projects and policies
108
100
Not directed to farmers need
80
74
Soil infertility
20
19
Political instability
30
28
*Multiple responses recorded. Source: Field survey data, 2010
From Table 4.18, it can be seen that previous strategies did not work mainly due to poor implementation of agricultural projects and policies (100%) followed by lack of government commitment (93%) and the programmes not directed to the farmers needs (74%). Carcia (2006) reported that inadequate planning and poor implementation strategies were responsible for failure of such programmes. Nzeuzor (2002) also reported that political instability led to the abrogation of existing programme for a new one to exist thus hindering the effective performance of some agricultural programmes. High illiteracy level of the women had the least value (9%) and was the least reason for failure of Agricultural programme in Abia State, Nigeria.
78
CHAPTER FIVE SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 5.1
SUMMARY The objective of this survey was to investigate the utilization of women labour in crop
production in Abia State. The specific objectives are to: (i) identify specific farming operations that utilize women labour in the study area; (ii) compare the relative contribution of women and men to total labour utilization in different farm operation in the study area; (iii) identify factors that affect the participation of women in different farm operations; (iv) determine the effect of women labour utilization on the value of output of the farmers in the area; (v) identify and analyze the constraints facing women farmers in crop production in the study area; (vi) identify why previous strategies in solving women agricultural problems have achieved limited success; (vii) suggest ways of improving rural women participation in crop production in the study area. Abia State was purposively selected. This is because it is one of the states in southeastern agro-ecological zone of Nigeria where women are highly involved in agricultural food production. Multi-stage random sampling technique was used in selection of respondents. Data for the study were collected from primary sources. A structured questionnaire validated by experts in Agricultural Economics was developed and used to obtain information for the analysis, Enumerators were drawn from the state in data collection which was supervised by the researcher. The sample size was 108 households randomly selected from 36 villages in Abia state. In the households a relevant male and female respondents were interviewed. Statistical technique used for data analysis include standard deviation, frequency, mean, percentage, multiple regression analysis, multilomial logit model, likert scale rating techniques and t-test analysis. Majority of the respondents were full-time farmers, while the rest were part time farmers. There was a relatively high proportion of middle age to old farmers (68%) in the area. More than 40 % of the respondents never attended primary school at all. Few attended formal education ranging from incomplete primary school to secondary education and above. About 65 % of the respondents were married and lived with their husbands with an average family size of seven per household. About 68% of the respondents had spent more than 15 years in farming. Over 60% of the tasks associated with crop production were directly performed by the respondents. Family labour was employed to supplement in performing task such as nursery preparation, staking and construction of storage facilities. Hired labour was employed for strenuous activities such as bush clearing, making of mounds to supplement
79 respondents labour. The t-test analysis showed that women respondents contributed more in weeding, planting and harvesting. It was only in bush clearing that men respondents contributed more. There was a no significant difference in cultivation. The multilomial logit model was good. The basic activity was harvesting. This was due to the involvement of women in this farm operation. Occupation, household head position and income level positively affected the labour utilization of the women in different farm operations of crop production. Other variables like education, age, distance from farm and household size had a negative influence on the women’s labour utilization in crop production. The multiple regression analysis showed that 67 % of the variations in the endogenous variables y are accountable by or explained by the variation in the exogenous variables. The overall regression was significant at 5% level of significance. Family land was the main source of land to the respondents in the area and majority (75%) of the respondents owned less than 1 hectares from this source. Over 80% of the respondents had never participated in any extension and agricultural development programme. Considering the wide range of factors affecting women farmers production, lack of finance, lack of credit/loan, and scattered small plot of land were serious constraints. Poor implementation of agricultural projects and lack of government commitment were the major reasons why previous intervention strategies to help women farmers to increase their food production efficiency did not achieve much success.
5.2
CONCLUSION Numerous research investigations have recognized and confirmed the importance of
women in agriculture and their contribution in food production. The findings of this study have increased our understanding of the women labour utilization in crop production. Crop production as it is practiced in the state involves many activities and different level of responsibility. It was found in this study that women farmers in the study area have taken up the responsibility of executing much to the actual day to day work in the farm. Specific farm operations that utilize women labour were identified; the contribution of women and men to total labour utilization in different farm operations were analyzed. The factors affecting the participation of women in different farm operations were identified and analyzed. The effect of women labour utilization on the value of output was also determined. The constraints facing the women in crop production were also analyzed and the reasons why previous strategies in solving women’s agricultural problems did not achieve much success were identified. The result of the analysis led to the rejection of the hypothesis which states that there is no difference in the labour utilization of men and women farmers in the area and
80 different farm operations. It also established that socio-economic variables had a significant effect on the participation in different farm operations leading to rejection of the hypothesis II in clearing, planting, weeding and harvesting and was accepted in cultivating. Again, the hypothesis which states that women labour utilization has no significant effect on the value of output of the women farmers was rejected. It could be concluded that rural women in Abia State are utilizing more labour in crop production than men, also that the place of women labour in crop production in Abia State was determined by many social, economic and other factors which operated simultaneously to influence their production.
5.3
RECOMMENDATIONS Since women form an indispensable and indeed a substantial component of the
Nigerian labour force, efforts should be made to integrate them into the mainstream of manpower planning and development. Efforts should be made by the government towards determining the socio-economic contribution of women to the GNP. To this end, National Women Research Institute (NWRI) should be established in all states to be coordinated at the national level by the National Commission for Women. The NWRI with its cream of researchers and academics from Universities and Research Institutes should have the following mission and mandates:
o To conduct research aimed at determining the economic contribution of women to overall GNP on a continuous basis with due recognition of their domestic work.
o To determine, at regular intervals, the changing ratio of women to men to be able to advise government and policy makers in the formulation and implementation of policies
o To join with research institutes and universities in the development of womenrelevant agricultural technologies, especially in the areas of food crops where women are known to be predominantly involved.
o To conduct other socio-economic research and projects on women o To represent women’s interests and needs in national manpower planning and development. To ensure increasing rural women participation in crop production, government should show more interest in affairs of women farmers. The participation of rural women in farming in the area appeared to increase with age. This shows that in the next few years, most of the farmers would not be strong enough to meet the rigours of labour intensive farming operations in the area thereby reducing production. Therefore a supplement source of farm
81 labour like mechanization would be necessary if the production of women farmers must be high enough to satisfy the nation’s requirement for food. The labour available to the respondents has been depleted by the fact that most of their family members who could offer help were in school, lived away from the village or occupied with other non-farm activities. The cost of hiring available labour has increased as a result of the exodus of men and youths from farming to non-farming occupation. Therefore, the respondents need adequate farm finance by government to supplement their labour requirements. Efforts should be made by the government to expand and increase the number and caliber of women called to national assignments. Specifically, since women constitute a greater percentage of primary producers (as in agriculture), more women should be called to serve as federal and state government functionaries, especially in areas that pertain to women affairs. A Ministry for Women Affairs should be created at the Federal and State levels to handle women “palava” such that women-related organizations and parastatals can be under a single umbrella. This will ensure that these organizations do not run at cross-purpose, avoid duplication of efforts and resources, and at the same time effect a single coordinating body for women affairs especially in manpower planning and development. Basic infrastructural facilities should be provided by the government to reduce drift away from the village. Also the establishment of agro-allied industries in the rural areas will help keep labour in villages as well as encourage farm production in a commercial level since more land and other resources will be employed. The problem of illiteracy among the rural women can be overcome if extension service extends their training, visit and follow-up programmes to the rural women. If more women are trained as extension personnel, a closer contact will be established with women farmers thus encouraging them to seek advice on how to improve their production. Extension agents should be equipped with necessary agricultural information and facilities to enable them communicate well with the farmers and educate them on how to use improved agricultural practices. A thorough understanding of the important role and responsibilities of women in the farm and home will guide programme designers in formulating policies that will enhance the production of women in agriculture. Also women should not be discriminated against in issues relating to credit supply, input delivery system and training programmes. As a way of enhancing the production and reducing the drudgery which characterizes subsistence farming, the researcher suggests that women be encouraged to pool their land and other resources together by forming and joining women organizations such as local co-
82 operatives, isusu groups and others. This will arrest the problem of small sized plots, shortage of labour and inadequate finances. There is also need for land tenure reform so that women can have and own lands of their own. Based on the findings, government should ensure proper implementations of programmes. Monitoring and evaluation should be done from the beginning to the end of the projects by independent consultants. The potentials of women farmers in contributing to agricultural production and economic growth will be greatly enhanced with the provision of all the necessary supports in the form of farm physical inputs, rural infrastructures and educational training programme.
5.4
CONTRIBUTIONS TO KNOWLEDGE This work is a reference material for research scholars interested in this or related
topics because it added to the already existing knowledge body. It will provide useful information to research institutes like ADP as well as help them examine how far their research findings and innovations have reached the farmers. The result of this work will establish a new and in-depth understanding of the problems of women farmers with respect to food production. The findings also will fill the literature gap on women involvement in food production.
5.5
SUGGESTION FOR FURTHER RESEARCH Some other detailed studies worth being carried out should among others include: 1. economic analysis of migrant labour on production of rural women in agriculture. 2. problems and prospects of women labour in specific farming operation and 3. the response of rural women towards government incentives to boast agricultural production. If above suggested researches are carried out, then a lot would have been done in
helping women farmers improve their level of production.
83
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94
UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA, NSUKKA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS
Questionnaire Dear Respondents The undersigned is a Postgraduate student of the Department of Agricultural Economics University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
She is currently conducting a study on Women Labour Utilization on Crop Production in Abia State Nigeria. Your household has been chosen as one of the respondents to provide information for this study. Your responses will be treated in strictest confidence.
Thank you.
Signed Ezeibe A.B.C.
95
SECTION A SOCIO ECONOMICS CHARACTERISTICS OF THE HOUSEHOLDS 1.01
Household name;
1.02
Location;
____________________________________
i.
Town/Village; ____________________________
ii.
Community; ______________________________
iii.
LGA; ____________________________________
iv.
Agricultural zone __________________________
1.03
Respondent’s sex male; ______________ female.______________
1.04
Position of the respondents in the family (a) House wife _________________ (b) Husband __________________ (c) Others (specify) __________________
1.05
Marital status of respondent; married ___________ Single _________________
1.06
If single, indicate whether
i.
Spinster /bachelor __________________________
ii.
Divorced_
iii.
Widow/widower ___________________________
1.07
_____________________________
Household Size: a. Who is the head of the household? Male ________________ Female ___________________ b. If female is the head of the household. Where does the male or husband live? ______________________________________________ c. How many children less than 15 years are in the family? Male _________________
female ____________________
d. How many adult above 16 years are in the family? Male _________________
female ____________________
e. What is the total household size including extended family members and adopters? Male ____________________ female ___________________ f. Do you (women) think you are recovering enough help from your husband and children in your farm work? i. (Yes)_________________
ii. (No.) ___________________________
g. If your answer to 1.07 f is No what do you think is/are responsible i. My husband has other jobs than farming _________________________
96 ii My husband is living away from home. __________________________ iii My children are in school ____________________________________ iv My children are not living with me_____________________________ v. My children do not like farming ______________________________ vi My children are still very young ______________________________ vii Others specify ____________________________________________
1.08
Age a.
Indicate the ages of these individuals
S/No. Age Range i.
21 -30
ii.
31 – 40
iii.
41 – 50
iv
51 – 60
v.
61 and above
Husband
Wife
1.09 Occupation: a. Indicate the primary occupation of the following individuals: S/No. Occupation i
Farming
ii
Trading
iii
Teaching
iv
Civil Servant
v
Others specify
Husband
Wife
b. Basis of farming Men -_____________________ (i) Full time (ii) Part-time Women: ____________________ (ii) Full time (ii) Part-time c. What other occupation do these individuals have apart from farming Husband _________________ Wife: __________________________
97
1.10
Educational Level a) Indicate the educational attainment of these individuals (i.e. number of years of formal education) i. Husband _____________________ years ii. Wife
_______________________ years
1.11. Farming Experience How long have these individuals been farming S/No. Years I
1–5
Ii
6 – 10
Iii
11 – 15
iv.
16 – 20
v
21 and above
Husband
Wife
1.12 Distance of farm from Home: a) What is the distance between the house and the farm? _________________________ metres _________________________ kilometres
1.13
Income a.
What is the average income level of these individuals per annum? S/No.
b.
Income Level
1
Less than N100,000
2
N 100,000 – N150,000
3
N 151,000 – N200,000
4
N 200,000 and above
Husband
Wife
What proportion of your income do you get from farm produce including the one consumed at home? S/No. 1 2 3 4
c.
Proportion ¼ o my income ½ of my income ¾ of my income All of my income
Husband
About how much do you spend on feeding in a day? N _________________________________
Wife
98
SECTION B FARM OPERATIONS/TASK PERFORMED BY RESPONDENTS
2.1
Which of these farm operations is/are performed by you and which do you use either family or hired labour.
2.2
S/No.
Farm Operations
I
Bush clearing
ii
Bush burning
Iii
Removing burnt materials
iv.
Nursery Preparation
V
Making moulds/ridging
Vi
Planting
vii.
Manu ring
Viii
Skating
Ix
Weeding
X
Harvesting
Xi
Construction of storage facilities
Xii
Transporting marketing of produce.
Xiii
Other Specify
Husband Wife
Other Family Labour
Who among these individuals take the following decisions? S/No. Items 1
Which crops to produce
2
Where to produce them
3
Farm size where the crops are to be produced
4
The produce to be sold
5
The amount to sell them
6
The quantity to be used at home
Husband Wife
Hired Labour
99
SECTION C
3.1
Labour Utilization at Different Farm Operations of Crop Production a. How long have these individuals been farming? Husband ________________ Wife _________________
About how much time do these individuals spend omn farm work per week? S/No. Hours
Husband
1
1 – 10 hours
2
11 – 20 hours
3
21 – 30 hours
4
31 – 40 hours
5
40 and above
Wife
How many hours do these individuals devote to these farm operations in a farming season?
S/No.
Farm Operations
1
Clearing
2
Cultivating
3
Planting
4
Weeding
5
Harvesting
Husband (Hours)
Wife (Hours)
What is the average amount realized from produce i.e. both sales and consumed products per farming season
YES/NO
Amount (N) Husband Wife Total
Do you think that the women labour utilized contributed to the amount realized in the above table.
100
SECTION D
PHYSICAL INPUT FACTORS AFFECTING WOMEN PARTICIPATION IN CROP PRODUCTION
Land: 4.1
By what means do you get land for your farm work? i. `________________________________________ _________________________________________ ii. iii. _________________________________________ iv. _________________________________________ _________________________________________ v.
4.2
How many plots of farmland do you and your family has? Owned__________________ Rented______________
4.3
Would you like to have more yes( )/(No( ) _________________
4.4
How many plots of land did you cultivate this planting season? _______________________________________
Farm Input 4.5
Have you ever collected/used any planting materials from the Ministry of Agriculture or Extension Agro-Service Centre of your village yes; ( No; (
4.6
4.7
).
If your answer is yes, list the planting materials: i.
_____________________________________
ii.
______________________________________
iii.
______________________________________
iv.
______________________________________
How would you describe availability of these inputs for your farming Operations?
i.
Readily available
[ ]
ii
Some what available
[ ]
iii.
Not readily available
[ ]
)
101 4.8
If you have not used any of or the required planting materials needed for your
``
production, Tick (√) against all the possible reasons for that .
.
`
i
High cost of planting materials
ii
Have not heard about them
iii
Do not know how to use them
iv
Not available in the market
v
Not necessary for my production.
vi
Do not use them in my village.
vii
Others specify.
Labour 4.9
Do you not need additional labour; yes ( ) or no ( ).
4.10
Can you easily get this additional labour; yes ( ) or no ( ).
4.11
If you answer is no why?
4.12
i.
No body to hire because able bodied men and youths have gone to big cities( ).
ii.
To get more labour is very expensive now in my village (
iii.
My husband is not around to help me.
iv.
My children prefer going to school to going to farm (
v.
People look down on farming as a business (
)
)
).
How much does it cost to hire a woman or man to work for you in the village per day? Man (N)______________________Woman (N) __________________
Economic Factors Capital 4.13
Have you ever received financial/credit assistance from the government Or Ministry of Agriculture?
4.14
4.15
What is/are your main source(s) of finance for your farm work?. i.
_______________________________
ii.
_______________________________
iii.
_______________________________
iv.
_______________________________
Do you think you are receiving enough money for your farm work Yes ( ) or No ( )
102 4.16
If your answer to 3.16 is No why?_______________________________ a. The government/Ministry of Agriculture is not giving us financial assistance like the men ( ). b.Money lenders charge high interest rate to limit the amount one borrows. c. My husband is unemployed (
).
d.Others specify.
Socio Cultural Factors: 4.17
How would you describe the involvement of men in farming oin your village now. High (
) Average (
)
Poor
(
)
Are there farming operations which women in your village are restricted from doing? Yes (
)
No (
)
If your answer to 4.17 is yes list such operation i.
______________________________________
ii.
_______________________________________
iii.
_______________________________________
iv.
_______________________________________
Motivational Factors 4.18 S/No.
Indicate all the factors that motivated you to become a farmer. Reasons for being a farmer
I
To meet the family’s food needs
Ii
To earn more income
Iii
Vi
To improve my family standard of living In order to send my children to school It is a role expected of every woman To assist my husband
Vii
Others specify
Iv V
Most Not Not too Important Important Important Important
103
SECTION E FARM CONSTRAINTS
5.1 How do you rate the following as problems: S/No.
Problems
I
Lack of finance
Ii
Lack of extension Services
iii
Lack of improved inputs
iv
Lack of storage facilities
V
Untimely provision of credit
vi
Lack of credit and loan
vii
Lack of infrastructure
viii
Negative attitude of women
xx
Illiteracy
X
Pest and disease
xi
High cost of labour
xii
Transportation problem
xiii
Land tenure problem
xiv
Low motivation
xv
Inadequate storage facilities
xvi
Poor and seasonal road net-work
xvii
Price fluctuation of produce
xviii
Difficulty in marketing farm produce Others specify
xix
Very Serious
Not too Serious Not Serious Serious
104
SECTION F WHY PREVIOUS INTERVENTION STRATEGIES HAVE ACHIEVED LIMITED SUCCESS.
6.1 Were you aware of these programmes (Yes/No) S/No 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Programmes Husband Wife Operation Feed the Nation (OFN) Directorate for Food, Road and Rural Infrastructure (DFRRI) Better Life for Rural Women (BLFRW) Women in Agriculture (WIA) National Accelerated Food Production Programme (NAFPP) FADAMA Others Specify
6.2 Which of the following programme have you participated or not?. S/No. I Ii
Programme National Accelerated Food Production Programme (NAFPP) Green Revolution Programme (GRP)
Iv
Directorate for Food Road and Rural Infrastructure (DFRRI) Better Life for Rural Women (BLFRW)
V
Family Support Programme (FSP)
Vi Vii
Family Economic Advancement Programme (FEAP) Operation Feed the Nation (OFN)
Viii
Isusu/Age Grade
Iii
Ix
Women in Agriculture (WIA)
X
Women Association
Xi
Village Cooperative
Participated
Never Participated
105 6.3 What do you think is the reason why previous intervention strategies in solving women problems have achieved limited success? Tick (√) your answer(s).
Reasons I
Lack of Government commitment
Ii
Lack of extension assistance
Iii
High literacy level of women
Iv
Negative attitude of women farmers
V
Poor implementation of agric project and policies
Vi
Not directed to farmers need
Vii
Soil infertility
Viii Political instability Ix
Others specify
Strongly agree
Agree Disagree
Strongly disagree
