Evaluation of Women Farmers’ Perception of the Impact of Women-in-Agriculture Programme on Yield, Income and Decision-making Power in Southeastern Nigeria

Abstract

One of the reasons that necessitated the establishment of Women-in- Agriculture (WIA) Programme in 1989 was the perception that women farmers were not having adequate access to extension services compared to their male counterparts. Feminists argued that the inadequate access to extension services resulted in women farmers having poor farm yields, income, and decision-making power on what to produce. With the institutionalization of WIA programme since 1989, the study was conducted to evaluate the impact of the programme on women farmers’ yield, income and decision-making power. Multi-stage sampling technique was adopted for sample selection while semi-structured questionnaires were used for data collection. Data collected from 225 contact women farmers were analyzed using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and tested at 5% level. Mean separation was equally done with Fisher Least Significant Difference (FLSD). Generally, the grand mean perceptional value (4.21) indicated that women farmers perceived positive changes in their farm yields, income and decision-making power because of the influence of WIA Programme. Analysis of Variance on pooled data indicated that women farmers perceived significant differences (P < 0 .05) in the changes in yield, income and decision-making power. The result, as well, showed that women farmers in the different State’s agricultural zones in Southeastern Nigeria perceived significant differences (P < 0.05) in the changes in yield, income and decision-making power. Mean separation results showed that women farmers perceived the impact more on yield with perceptual mean value of 4.38a. It also revealed that women farmers in Oji agricultural zone in Enugu State had the highest impact in the Southeastern Nigeria with mean perceptional value of 4.61a. Based on the results, the paper strongly recommended that the implementers of the programme should be highly motivated in order to guarantee the sustainability of the programme for agricultural development