Challenges of women participation in agricultural activities in Hadejia local government area, Jigawa State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study analyzed the challenges of women participation in agricultural activities in Hadejia Local Government Area of Jigawa State,  Nigeria. A total of 120 respondents were randomly selected for the study. Structured questionnaire was used to elicit primary data that  were analyzed using descriptive statistics (frequency and percentage). The results revealed 64.1% of the respondents were married and  are within the age of 40 and above, ware as 38.33% has farming experience of about 11-15 years. The result of the study shows that about  72.5% of the women farmers in the study area encountered one form of challenges or the other ranging from non-access to credit  facilities and accounted for 81.7%, low access to extension services accounted for 65.0%, and also most of the women farmers that  engaged in crop production operate in their husbands' farm and accounted for 40.8%, farm size accounted for 33.3% had only 2 hectares while the majority of the 46.6% relay on personal savings as their sources of finance to their farming activities. It is recommended that  government should encourage women's participation in agricultural activities in the study area, women farmers should be encouraged  to have more access to land by involving them in any meaningful development plan of the Jigawa State government through Jigawa State  Agricultural Rural Development Authority (JARDA, 2011). By so doing, extension visits will allow the farmers to have access to subsidized  inputs and this will boost their level of participation in agricultural production.