Tropentag 2020, September 9 - 11, virtual conference, Germany "Food and nutrition security and its resilience to global crises"

Female Farmers’ Participation in Off-farm Activities and their Determinants in Rural Bauchi State, Nigeria

¹Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Fac. of Tropical AgriSciences, Dept. of Economics and Development, Czech Republic
²Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Bauchi, Dept. of Agricultural Economics and Extension, Nigeria

Abstract

Women plays a vital role in different economic sectors however, they are constraint to the developmental contribution due to the lack of access to productive resources, as in agricultural sector in most of the developing countries. This forces them to take part in off-farm activities to augment their little farm income. This study investigated the different type of off-farm activities engaged by women farmers and their determinants in rural Bauchi state, Nigeria. Purposive sampling method was used in selecting three local government areas out of seven in western agricultural zone of the state and random sampling method was used in selecting ten wards and 5% of registered women famers in each selected ward making 134 respondents. Semi-structured questionnaires were administered to women farmers in 2017. The data collected included socio-economic characteristics of the respondents, institutional factors and types of off-farm activities. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics and logistic regression models. The result revealed that food processing (25.6%), farm products sales (24.6%), trading (21.6%) and tailoring (14.6%) are the major off-farm activities engaged by the rural female farmers. The regression result shows that land ownership, remittances, access to extension service, access to credit, access to electricity and market increase the likelihood of rural women farmers to engage in off-farm livelihood activities significantly while increase in age and farm size affecting their participation in off-farm livelihood activities negatively. As the study found out the significant influence of access to extension services, credit, electricity and market, we hereby emphasise the provision of extension services, facilitating rural credit programmes, provision of rural electricity and markets.

Keywords: Bauchi state, Nigeria, off-farm activities, women farmers

Contact Address: Miroslava Bavorova, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Fac. of Tropical AgriSciences - Dept. of Economics and Development, Kamýcká 129, 16521 Prague - Suchdol, Czech Republic, e-mail: bavorovaftz.czu.cz