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Abstract: The thrust of this study examined and analysed impediments to the participation of women in their
household decision-making and socio-economic empowerment of the woman in the 21stcentury, with emphasis
on Nigeria, and how to emancipate rural women from political mediocrity and stagnancy through taking
responsibility for their lives especially in the involvement in agricultural production which is the main activity
and mainstay of the rural woman in Nigeria..Over 75% of Nigerians are subsistent farmer, holding small level
extensive agricultural practice that accounts for the countys food security and agricultural development. Of
note is that fact more than their male counterpart rural women account for very close to 80% of the work force
in the agricultural sector, surprisingly though a curious conspiracy ignores this humungous contribution by
women to agricultural development by women in Nigeria, what is however most worrisome is the womans lack
of decision-making power both at and nationally in all matters regarding agriculture.The dominance of gender
division of labour occasioned by gender dynamism constitute the most striking bottleneck to all the effort by
women in this all important sector in the rural areas, the institutionalized gender discrimination against women
will have to be removed if their effort must be recognized and if it must yield significant result for women to
work or farm their way out of poverty. The role of women-in-agriculture programme in ameliorating the
inadequacies of the various education program with regards to women has been remarkable in providing
women organizations with a voice that will attempt to echo their problems to the ears of the authority an ear
which is deafened by gender consideration and role delineation. The effort has resulted in women farmers now
enjoying better access to farm inputs and credits although many barriers remain and would have to be
addressed to further enhance their role. Rural women farmers deserve better recognition and greater
appreciation of their tangible contributions to agriculture and rural development and food security. Other
aspects of gender issues in Nigerian agriculture are discussed.
Key words: Agriculture % Food security % Gender inequality % Household economy % Nigeria% Women
farmers
I.
Introduction
The problems faced in developing agriculture in the rural areas of the developing countries is the lack
of infrastructure in the rural areas particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, all efforts geared towards agricultural
development will be futile if this problem is not addressed. A considerable majority of farmers operate at the
subsistence, smallholder level, with intensive agriculture being uncommon. A disproportionate portion of the
agricultural production is left in the hands of these smallholder farmers with average holding of about 1.0-3.0
hectares [CTA, 2000]. With little or no access to modern improved technologies their general situation does
guarantee them reasonable investments in capital, inputs and labour.
Food and nutrition security at the household level is dependent heavily on the effort of these women
producers at the rural level which is a major contribution to efforts aimed alleviating poverty in Nigeria. The
first pillar of food security therefore is sustainable agricultural and food production, [Odurukwe, SN, Mathew
EC, & N O.Ojiekwu, 2006]. The Nigerian population witnessed a steady from the 1980s with a commensurate
decline noticed in agriculture and food production in many African countries [FAO, 1995]. The diminishing
capacity of agriculture to guarantee household food subsistence increased the workload shouldered by women as
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DOI: 10.9790/0837-20513039
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II.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Recommendations
Womens access to basic economic resources such as land(as owners), low cost labour-saving machines,
food processing machines, credit and agricultural innovations need to be improved.
They need to address consideration which presents womens housewives and excluded them from being
identified in agricultural statistics; underestimating the role of unpaid workers in many countries and the
ignoring the role of farm women all underestimate the contribution of women to agriculture and food
security.
There is for the report of monitoring and evaluation of agricultural programs to women and women
groups as feedback as this will allow equalization of the full participation of women in the entire process,
this is most effective and appropriate way forward.
Support systems for women farmers within a holistic gender-sensitive framework are urgently needed to
form a policy development, project design and implementation agenda. Women must be directly involved
with the development and implementation of the new technology.
III.
Conclusion
The contribution of rural women to agricultural production and rural development in Nigeria is grossly
underappreciated in spite of the dominant role women play in the sector. Women compete more favourably than
men in terms of their participation in agricultural activities and household economy and food security is
unappreciated The survival and sustenance of agriculture and rural development in Nigeria, as well as in many
sub-Saharan Africa countries, rest squarely on the rural women. They therefore deserve to be given due
recognition as far as decision-making process in agriculture is concerned.
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