Title : Empowerment of women farmers for enhanced food production capability in North-Cetral
Abstract:
This study is on empowerment of women farmers for enhanced food production capability in North-Central Nigeria. The research was conducted over a period of one year – July 2021 – July, 2022. Purposive and Multistage random sampling technique was employed in the selection of 160 respondents while interview schedule was used to collect data. Analysis of data was done using frequency count and percentages and Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC). Results obtained reveals 52.0±4.5, 14.0±5.5, 0.7±1.5 and ?40.150±6.0 were mean age, years of farming experience, farm size and annual income of respondents respectively, majority of respondents 71.7% had no formal education, 91.7% had farm sizes less than one acre, 85.0% made less than ?50,000:00 as annual income, 85.0% source agricultural information from other farmers and 93.3% were not members of women farmers association. Identified perceived production challenges faced by respondents recorded in weighted scores include: lack of access to farmland (181.7), inadequate farm finance (178.3), lack of women extension visit (176.7), and inadequate access to labour supply (161.7). Significant relationship existed between challenges faced by women farmers (r = -0.624**, p = 0.000) this implies that constraints faced negatively affects agricultural production. It is recommended that for the purpose of enhancing the capabilities of women farmers in order to improve agricultural production, rural women should be empowered through policy formulations that will enable them have access to farmland, formal capital and agricultural extension services as men in order to reduce constraints faced in agricultural production.
