Analysis of Gender Access to Farm Inputs among Small Scale Crop Farmers in the North Central Zone of Nigeria

Abstract

The study was conducted to examine gender access to farm inputs among small-scale crop producers in Nigeria's North Central zone.  The study's objectives are to determine male and female small scale farmers' access to inputs in the study area, to identify inputs that are  more accessible by men and women small scale farmers across the study area, to identify inputs that are least accessible by male  and female small scale farmers across the study area, to analyze the locational differences in the level of access to farm inputs by male  and female small scale crop farmers in the study area, and to determine the constraints faced by both male and female small scale  farmers. For sample selection, a multistage random sampling procedure was applied. A total of 1080 farmers were questioned at random  in three North Central states (360 respondents in each): Abuja, Plateau, and Kwara. Data was examined using descriptive statistics, three- way mixed factorial analysis of variance, and mean separation at a 5% probability level. The findings found that there was no significant  difference in the level of access to farm inputs between the male and female genders, however the male gender had more access than  the female. It also demonstrated that gender access to farm inputs is greatly influenced by the type of farm input and the farmer's  location. Land, labor, and herbicides were the most accessible agricultural inputs, whereas tractor and loan were the least accessible farm  inputs, according to mean separation.