Gender Dimension to Farmers’ Perception of the National Fadama Development Project Phase III in Kogi State

Abstract

The study evaluated the perception of farmers of the Third National Fadama Project in Kogi state with particular interest on the gender dimension. A multistage random sampling technique was used in selecting the respondents while structured interview schedule was used for data collection. Samples of 20 farmers were selected in 5 local government areas to give a total of 100 respondents. Data were analyzed with frequency, percentages, mean, standard deviation and t-test. The result indicates that the mean membership composition of the groups by gender was about 5 for both male and female. The major source of information for the male was radio (90.1) while for the female was Buyers (75.9). The test of difference (t-test) shows that the male and female differ significantly on 2 activities and did not differ significantly on 10 activities. The result also shows that the male and female beneficiaries do not differ significantly in their attitudes to project (P< 0.05) with only one item having significant difference. There were only 2 being untimely disbursement and Lack of ready market to sell the increased output as a result of securing productive asset out the 20 possible constraints where the male and female participant differ (P< 0.05). These 2 constraints are Untimely disbursement of inputs (t=4.53 p<0.05) and Lack of ready market to sell the increased output as a result of securing productive asset (t= 5.59, p<0.05). The study therefore concluded that there is no significant disparity in the perception of the Third National Fadama Project in Kogi State based on gender and as such recommends that intervention programmes should be gender sensitive.

Keywords: Gender, Fadama Development Project