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Off-farm enterprise participation among rural women in Umuahia South Local Government Area, Abia State, Nigeria
Abstract
This study analyzed rural women participation in off-farm enterprises in Umuahia South Local Government Area of Abia State, Nigeria. A multistage sampling procedure was used to select eighty (80) respondents for the study. Cross-sectional data were collected using a well structured questionnaire and analyzed with the aid of a descriptive and probit regression model. Findings showed that women in the study area were mostly middle aged entrepreneurs, majority (53%) of whom were married. About 50% of the rural women had household size of between 6 to 10 persons, while 41% had between 1 to 5 and 9% of them had above 10 persons. Furthermore, 97% were literate with formal educational levels ranging from primary school to tertiary education, only 3% had no formal education. A good proportion (67%) of the respondents’ main sources of income was from off-farm sources, with 33% from farming. Mean farming experience of 16 years was estimated from the study and farm size of between 0.1 to 1.0 hectares cultivated by 54% of the rural women. Majority (66%) of the rural women had no access to credit, and 76% had monthly income of less than N50,000. The probit regression results showed that rural women farmers’ decision to participate in off-farm enterprises in the study area were negatively influenced by age, primary occupation, access to credit, farming experience and farm size, and positively influenced by educational level, cooperative membership and household size. The women were constrained from embarking on off-farm business by insufficient funds, lack of credit, and identifying off-farm businesses to embark on. The study therefore, recommends that women farmers should be encouraged to form and or join co-operative societies. Furthermore, it is important for them to attend adult education programmes, training and workshops to increase their knowledge base and skills. Lastly, government should improve social benefit programme to women farmers.
