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NIGERIAN RURAL WOMEN'S ATTEMPTS AT POVERTY ALLEVIATION, AGRICULTURE AND FOOD SECURITY Prof. NTUNDE, FLORA Department of Sociology, Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Enugu, Nigeria. & Oteh, Chukwuemeka O. (Ph.D) Department of Sociology/Anthropology Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki. Abstract Nigeria is a rural society, largely dependent on agriculture. Two thirds of the agricultural labour force is made up of rural women who are the chief producers, particularly in the area of subsistence agriculture. Moreover, a vast majority of them take care of their families livelihood. Unfortunately globalization is having its toll on this people because the more the nation have globalized the systems and mechanisms of production, marketing and financing, the more the women have ended up been isolated and marginalized, with the circumstances of their lives being worsened, and contributing to their poverty because they lack access to production assets (land, knowledge especially credit facilities). This study, therefore investigate Nigerian rural women survival strategies in increasing farm output and achieving food security thereby, alleviating their poverty. The paper concluded by inviting rural women farmers to form into cooperative groups or organizations to be able to fund their activities which will help stimulate dramatic changes boosting their income through producing and selling in bulk and ultimately alleviating poverty and increasing their nutritional standards Keywords: Rural women farmers, Production resources-credit coping strategy, cooperative groups, food production and food security and poverty alleviation. INTRODUCTION The Background of the Study Nigeria is a rural society largely dependent on agriculture and pastoralism, even though it is an oil-rich nation. Agricultural and rural developments, especially the achievement of food security, are among the main priorities of the Federal and State Governments' Points Agenda. Two thirds of the agricultural labour force is made up of rural women. These women have historically been the chief producers, particularly in the area of subsistence agriculture. A vast majority of these women take care of their families' livelihood. Presently globalization, as it is being called, is marginalizing the economy of most of the Third World countries (Bibangambah. 1983; World Bank Report 2002:5) because incomes have been falling in these countries and poverty rising. Also Murphy (2000:331) observes that inescapably that one of the most dramatic effects of globalization has been the intense localization of its impact on ordinary people. He continues that the more we have globalised the systems and mechanisms of production, marketing and financing, the more we have ended up isolating and marginalizing individuals, their families and communities and consequently the circumstances of their lives are worsened. This has negatively contributed to their poverty because they lack access to production assets - land, knowledge and credit facilities, etc. According to Mulwa (2000:36) when rural women farmers form into organizations they are empowered by giving them collective bargaining and power and they will be able to access production resources especially credit. Objectives of the Study This study aims at exploring and analyzing the poverty of rural women farmers in Enugu State of Nigeria. The main objective of the study is to investigate their survival strategies in helping with providing their

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families with extra incomes, thereby increasing farm output and achieving food security as homemakers. The specific objectives are to: (1) Investigate the causes of poverty among rural women farmers in Enugu State. (2) Determine the role of credits in increasing agricultural productivity and food security and alleviating poverty. (3) Identify the coping strategies these rural women farmers adopt in alleviating poverty and ensuring food security. (4) Identify whether rural women farmers who are members of groups (with access to credit) will report higher volumes of products for sales and wider market outlets than the individual rural women farmers who are not members of any group(without access to credit) in Enugu State. (5) Investigate whether rural women farmers who are members of groups (with access to credit) will report guaranteed continuous agricultural productivity and food security than their counterparts who are not members of any groups (without access to credit) in Enugu State. (6) Determine whether rural women farmers who are members of groups (with access to credit) will report higher generation of incomes and increased nutritional standards than their counterparts who are not members of groups (without access to credit) in Enugu State. Hypotheses In the light of the above objectives of the study, the following hypotheses will also guide this study. Ho Rural women farmers with access to credit will not report higher volumes of products for sales and wider market outlets than those who do not have any access. Ho Rural women farmers with access to credit will not report guaranteed continuous agricultural productivity and food security than those who do not have any access. Ho Rural women farmers with access to credit will not have higher generation of incomes and increased nutritional standards than their counterparts who do not have any access. THEORETICAL FOUNDATION Women farmers are regarded as the invisible farmers, their invisibility leads to their lacking in the production resources-land, knowledge, credit, needed to boost production. The ambition or desire of rural women farmers is to become more productive and to increase their profit, for them to be able to achieve these they need credit. In the rural areas there are no banks and even where they are, rural women are not credit worthy to benefit from the services of the banks. In the absence of the banks there are the informal credit sources. For any meaningful activities funds must be required to get started (Awoyemi 1981). The demand from the urban market for food is fast growing. This has been a great stimulus to agricultural production (Harrison, 2000). But their attempt to meet up this demand is been thwarted by lack of funds. When rural women farmers source for credit they use them to increase the size of their farms; to adopt new technology and can produce; store and sell when prices increase. According to Spore (52, 1-4) but only women groups aided by the access to credit can achieve such. With credits available women groups can engage in high level agro-processing activities. This supports Mulwa (2008) idea that groupings helps to consolidate people's economic base and improve their living standards. Berko (1992) defines credit as obtaining the use of funds which do not belong to the user with the obligation to return these funds to the owner at a future date, usually with some interest payment. Umebali (1990) observes that women's participation in agriculture aims at enhancing their production and income but that they fund it difficult to achieve these because they lack credits. Allowing women to obtain cash to raise their yields is the paramount reason why they need credits. Credits guarantee continuous agricultural production. In times of harvest it enables them to stockpile food stuffs which they will re-sale during the lean period which will be marketed at higher prices. Credits help to raise output because it follows the saying that what you sow you reap. When a farmer with cash sows in abundance; in abundance would be his productivity. Generation of income and establishment of income generating projects are only possible when there is enough cash or profit. Wide range of micro enterprises will generate income for the women. With this extra income accruing, women would be able to supplement family income, send their children to school and put food on the table. Without credit rural women farmers will not be able to diversify into processing of food stuffs. When bumper harvest ensued the excess after consumption would not be allowed to rot.

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For women to compete favourable they have to form groups/cooperative thereby working together and being able to gain the benefits of volumes of purchase and sales. This boosts their income. The group members contribute money at regular interval, with each member in turn receiving the full amount collected. Group formation serves a survival and defensive function Esman Uphoff (1984) found out that local organization were the most successful attempts to find solutions for confronting economic and social challenges since they guarantee continuous agricultural production and survival for their members. The credit scheme helps them to establish a wide range of business activities such as agro-processing. This offers both an alternative employ to agriculture and an opportunity to add value to local produce RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The researcher collected data on coping strategies that the rural women farmers in Enugu State adopt to counter poverty. In so doing, no data was manipulated. The data were collected in line with responses provided by the rural women farmers in the questionnaire. The area of the study was limited to Udi Local Government Area of Enugu State. The area was chosen because of the dominant rural population of women. The sample for the study was made up of 64 rural women farmers who belong to one group or the other and 49 women who work simply as individual farmers. Of the total number of rural farmers only (30) thirty had passed National Certificate of Education. Their ages range from 25 to 57. The instrument used for the collection of data was a 13 item rural women farmers poverty coping questionnaire, developed by the researcher. The instrument was designed to measure the causes of poverty among these rural women farmers and their coping strategies. The questionnaire was divided into three sections, namely A, B, and C. Section A contains information on their demographic variables- educational attainment, number of children and age, while section B deals with the causes of poverty among rural women farmers. Section C measures the coping strategies they adopt to counter poverty, low agricultural production and food insecurity. In order to ensure that the instrument is valid and reliable both face and construct validities were established by subjecting the items to scrutiny by experts in the women studies and agricultural extension section of Ministry of Agriculture. The researcher employed simple random sampling and purposive sampling method to track down the participants. With the help of two extension officers we were able to distribute a total of one hundred and twenty-two copies of questionnaire to the rural women farmers. Sixtyeight copies were distributed to rural women who are members of groups but sixty-four (64) were returned, while for those not belonging to any group fifty- four copies were distributed but only forty-nine were collected. In order to ensure anonymity, the respondents were requested not to write their names on the questionnaire. The extension officers helped them in filling the questionnaire and collected them after they had finished with the answers. Frequencies and percentages were used to analyze the data. A Chi-square statistics was used to determine whether there is any significant difference between rural women cooperators and non-cooperative in the opinions. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Result Presentation and Description Table 1 - Cause of Poverty
S/N Perception of Rural Women Farmers Total Number of respondents who mentioned each item 64 50 74 Ranking of each item scored 1 0th 1 1th 7th

1 2 3

Women live predominantly in rural areas They depend largely on family labour Vulnerable to changes in input and output prices

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4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Total dependant on their own harvest They do not store food stuff They do not have enough cash to fall back on They do not have collateral to meet stringest conditions of banks Engrossed in traditional methods of fanning Lack of production assets Seasonal fluctuation in prices makes it impossible to raise their agricultural output Lack of resources to cultivate more land

65 75 110 80 76 113 99

oth o 9th ^nd 5th 6th 1st jrd

11

98

th

Source: field work 2008 The main source of poverty among the rural women farmers have been identified as due to cash constraint. Allowing women to obtain cash to raise their yields is the paramount reason why they need credit. Credits guarantee continuous agricultural production. In times of harvest it enables them to stockpile food staffs which they will re-sale during the lean period which will be marketed at higher prices. Also credits help to raise output generation of income and establishment of income generating projects are only possible when there is enough cash or credit. Testing of Hypotheses To determine whether rural cooperators and non-cooperators with little or no credits differ in their opinions on the influence of accessibility of cash in generating higher agricultural productivity, higher volumes of products for sales and higher generation of income table II shows that all the Null Hypotheses were rejected Opinions Disagree Ho There is no difference in the opinions regarding the influence of credits in reporting higher volumes of products for sales and wider market outlets Among rural women farmers cooperators and Fanners non-cooperators There is no difference in the opinions regarding the influence of credits in generating continuous agricultural productivity and food security among rural women farmers cooperators and rural women farmers non-cooperators There is no difference in the opinions regarding the influence of credits in generating higher income and increased nutritional standards among: Rural women farmers cooperators and Rural women farmers non-cooperators Source: field work 2008

Agree

X2

Decision

23 9

54 30

5.72

Reject HOI at >0.05

H0

30 36

44 3

Rejected H()2>0.05 27.91

Ho

Rejected H()3>0.05 5 18 69 21 32.94

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Table II shows that there are differences in the opinions of the rural women farmers regarding the influence of credits in allowing them generate higher incomes, increased product and higher volumes of sales. This is seen when all the Null Hypotheses Hoi, Ho2 and H03 were rejected. This goes to show that they believed and agreed that access to credit has to do with improvement in food production and the consequent raising of the living standard of rural families and thereby alleviating poverty. Results Discussion Accessibility to credits has been a great stimulus to agricultural production. Through the saving scheme rural women farmers are mobilized for cooperative action. Most investments increasing women's agricultural productivity have focused on income generation strategies. But lack of production assets has been identified as one of he major causes of poverty to them and this makes it very impossible to raise their productive output. Allowing rural women farmers to obtain cash to raise their yields is the paramount reason why they need credit. The importance of accessibility to credit can not be overemphasized. Hence credits help to raise their output; help them to raise income; is used to establish income generating projects and help them to strengthen their ability to process for market. There is need for credit when people want to improve their lives. Therefore the ambition of these rural women is to become more productive with higher farm yields and consequent increase in profit. They know that to eat better food, train their children in schools and develop their trades there is need for credit. As such the coping strategy available to them is through joining self-help credit groups (Mulwa2000). According to Mulwa (2008) these groupings help to consolidate peoples economic base and improve their living standards. Individually rural women farmers cannot produce competitively because they do not have the required assets and as such their incomes are very meager. Therefore they end up being under-resourced and non-productive farming class. But groups of women working together or pulling resources in an organized way benefit more in that they will be able to offer higher volume of products for sale and have wider market outlets; have guaranteed continuous farm products; generate higher incomes and increased nutritional standards. The Chi-Sq Statistics used to determine whether women (those who are members of cooperators and those who are not) differ in their opinions on the influence of accessibility of cash in generating higher agricultural productivity; higher volumes of products for sales; and consequently higher income. The results show that the 3 Null Hypotheses were rejected at 0.05 significance level. This goes to support Mulwa(2008) assertion that when credit is available to women because the form themselves into groups women will be able to improve in food production, hereby alleviating poverty and consequently raising the living standard of their families. CONCLUSION The problem that face the resource poor rural women farmers in Nigeria is highly complex, yet as in many other developing countries it is these resource poor women farmers that have to produce enough food for the masses and moreover for the livelihood of their families. The main source of poverty has been identified as due to cash constraint, notably not having enough credits to raise their output. Their ambition is to become more productive with higher farm yields and to increase profit. Individually it is highly difficult to accumulate assets. The best and only available strategy to make credits accessible to these rural women farmers is for them to form and join groups, associations preferably cooperatives where they will be mobilized for cooperative action. Group formation serves survival and defensive function, and provides solution for confronting economic and social challenges. In line with Onyukwu (2002) assertion financial capital is really a critical factor of production and it holds the leeway to poverty alleviation REFERENCES Awoyemi, O. 1981 "Problems of Agriculture in Nigeria" in Agricultural Credits and normal Finance in Nigeria; Problems and Prospects, ed Ojo et al CBN. Seminar Proceedings: April 27-30. Berko, S.Y. 1992 "The Role of Savings and Credit Cooperative Societies in the Mobilization of Local Savings for Development" in Financial and Non - Financial Issues in Cooperative, ed Ijere, M. O. and Arua, E. O. University of Nigeria (Nsukka). Bibangambah, J. R. 1983 "The Sources and Consequences of Economic Instability in Africa: Africa's Position in International Ties of Dependency" Paper presented at Mawazo Inaugural Workshop, Makerere University.

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Esman, M. J. andN. Uphoff 1984 Local Organisations: intermediaries in Rural Development. Ithaca, N.Y. Cornell Univ. Press. Food and Agricultural Organisation 1983 "Rural Poverty in Developing Countries and Means of Poverty Alleviation" in State of Food and Agriculture 1981 Rome FAO. Harrison, N. 2000 "Linking Africa's Farms and Cities" in Urban Age. The Age Wave winter pp. 4 - 6. Mulwa, F. N. 2000 Changing the Poor People's Vision of Reality: The Church's Response. AMECEA. Gaba Publications. ___ 2008. Demystifying Participatory Community Development Beginning from the People; Ending at the People. Kenya. Africa Paulines Pub 149 Murphy, B. K. 2000 "International N. G. O and the Challenges of Modernity" Development in Practice. Vol. 19 (3 & 4) August Oxfarim G. B. Onyukwu, E. O. 2002 "Production Relations and Incidence of Poverty in Enugu State". Nigerian Journal of Social Development Vol 1 (2) pp. 82 - 86. Spore "Rural Development and African Prosperity": Learning from the past 1 - 4. Umebali, E. E. 1990 "Women Cooperatives in Rural Development in Anambra State" in Roles and Paradigms in the rural Development ed Igbozurike, U. M., Opara, E. E. and Awuzie, Karto Press. World Bank Report 2002 "Globalization, Growth and Poverty" A World Bank Policy Research Report Washington D. C. Oxford University Press.