An assessment of agricultural enterprises owned by women farmers in Ikpoba-Okha local government, Edo state, Nigeria

Abstract

The study assessed the agricultural enterprises owned by women farmers in Ikpoba-Okha Local Government, Edo State, Nigeria. Using a structured questionnaire, data were collected from 60 randomly selected women farmers. Findings show that majority of the respondents were within the ages of 26-50 years (70%), 85% were married, 31.7% did not have any form of formal education while 46.7% had up to primary school education. The study revealed that 41.7% of the respondents had 4-6 children while 21.7% had 7-9 children. Findings also showed that majority (98.3%) of the respondents were engaged in cassava production enterprise while 55% were engaged in poultry production. Cassava was perceived to be the most profitable enterprise followed by poultry. Respondents also perceived these enterprises to have assisted them in taking care of children schools fees and improve their nutritional status thereby improving their standard of living. The result indicated that all the respondents had contact with extension agents in form of farm visits (twice weekly) and extension demonstration (every 6 months). However, the major constraints faced by the women farmers were poor produce prices (Mean, x = 2.98), lack of credit (Mean x = 2.97) and poor market outlet (Mean, x = 2.77) for their produce. Respondents' age, (r = 0.412, p<0.05), number of children r = 0,373, p<0.05) and business experience (r = 0.435, p<0.05) had significant and positive relationship with respondents' derived benefits from their enterprises It was therefore recommended that women association should be formed and organized into cooperatives so as to increase their access to extension, credit, input and marketing services.