Women Participation In Poultry Farming In Selected Local Government Areas Of Rivers State, Nigeria
Odinwa A B
Department of Agricultural Education, Federal College of Education (Technical), PMB 11, Omoku, Rivers State Nigeria.
Amugo N M
Department of Agricultural Technology, Captain Elechi Amadi Polytechnic, Port Harcourt. Rivers State, Nigeria.
Keywords: Women, Participation, Poultry, Farming, Selected, Odinwa, A. BOdinwa, A. B
Abstract
The study analyzed women participation in poultry farming in selected local government areas of Rivers State. The study specifically seek to: describe the social-economic characteristics of women participating in poultry farming; determine the level at which women participate in poultry farming; and examine the constraints to women participation in poultry farming in the study area. Three hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. Descriptive survey design was employed to examine a cross section of women in poultry farming in the study area. Both simple random and snowball sampling techniques were adopted to select three LGAs, eighteen communities and 108 women for the study. Questionnaire instrument mostly designed in Likert type rating scales was used to elicit information from the respondents. Descriptive statistics such as percentage, arithmetic mean and weighted mean scores were used to analyze the data. Linear Regression and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) were applied to test the hypotheses at 0.05% significant level. The result indicates that women in poultry farming in the study area were in their prime age of 37 years old and that majority of them were married (71%), with a mean household size of six (6) persons per family. It showed a mean annual income of (N228,000.00) only from poultry farming. It also showed that the participation of women in poultry farming in these three LGAs of the State was generally low (CM = 2.16), that they only participated in raising layers for eggs with Grand Mean (GM = 2.89), raising broilers for meat (GM = 2.85) and in the supplies of feeds and drugs (GM = 2.58). Test of significance showed that household size (2.172*), annual income (1.430*) and nature of farming (1.254*) affected the participation of women in poultry farming positively at 5% significant level. Finally, the result showed that: insecurity challenges (GM = 3.30), price fluctuations of poultry products (GM = 3.24), inadequate credit (GM = 3.17), land ownership issues (GM = 3.16), inadequate storage facilities (GM = 3.09), pest and disease problems (GM = 3.06) among other challenges, posed very serious constraints to women participation in poultry enterprise in the study area. The ANOVA result showed that constraints to women participation in poultry farming did not differ significantly at 0.05% probability level among the three LGAs in Rivers State. Based on the findings, the study recommended that: Women in the study area should not limit themselves to only raising of layers for eggs and broilers for meat alone, but diversify to hatchery, production and supplies of poultry feeds and equipment; Extension agencies operating in the study area should register more women as contact poultry farmers especially in Abuah/Odual LGA of Rivers State; and Agricultural credits should be made available and accessible to women in poultry farming in the study area.