Women farmers\' participation in yam minisett adoption in south-eastern Nigeria.

Abstract

This study was designed to measure the level of women farmers participation and its determinants in the adoption of yam minisett in Abia State South-eastern Nigeria. A multi-stage random sampling technique was used to select 243 women farmers while interview schedule was used in data collection. Data collected were analyzed using frequencies, percentages, means and Pearson correlation. The result showed that out of 9 adoption activities identified for the study, the women farmers had high level of involvement in 7 activities. Lack of awareness, lack of capital, lack of extension services, scarcity/high cost of farm inputs, high cost of labour and land acquisition were indicated by the respondents as the major problems limiting their participation in adoption of the technology in the study area. Educational Status (r = 0.295, P<0.01), farming experience (r = 0.305, P<0.01) and membership of cooperative / farmers association (r = 0.194, P < 0.05) were found to be positively and significantly related to participation while age (r = - 0. 338, P < 0.01) was negative but significantly related to participation. The study found no relationship between household size, farm size, extension contact and participation in yam minisett adoption in the state.

Keywords: women farmers, participation, yam minisett, adoption

Global Approaches to Extension Practice Vol. 3 (2) 2007: pp. 62-69