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Assessment of Gender Roles in Cocoa Production Activities in Abia State, Nigeria
Abstract
This study assessed gender roles in cocoa production activities in Abia State and specifically described the demographic characteristics of the respondents; determined gender roles in cocoa production activities and evaluated factors influencing gender roles in cocoa production activities in the study area. The multi-stage sampling procedure was employed in selecting 160 respondents (96 men and 64 women) for the study. An interview schedule was employed in data collection while percentages, mean and z-test were used for analyses. From the result, average age for men was 54years and 53years for women. All the men (100%) and 87.5% women had some level of formal education and more males (62.5%) than females (59.3%) were primarily farmers. Further results revealed that men participated more in the transportation of cocoa beans from farm to the house (x̄m =3.3, x̄f =3.5), sourcing for the fund for farm operations (x̄m =3.0, x̄f =3.3), hiring labourers and payment of wages (x̄m =3.8, x̄f =3.6) among others while women participated more in fermentation and checking of cocoa beans (x̄m =3.5, x̄f =3.6), sun-drying and removal of bad cocoa beans (x̄m =3.8, x̄f =3.9). Men and women agreed that unwillingness to invest in cocoa production risk (x̄m =3.2, x̄f =3.8), poor access to information (x̄m =3.7, x̄f =2.9), time constraints due to domestic and other off-farm work (x̄m =3.6, x̄f =3.5) highly influenced women’s participation. The result showed there was no significant difference in the roles played by men and women farmers in cocoa production activities in the study area at 5% alpha level. The study therefore recommends that training and policies should be designed in a way that everybody is carried along.
