Economic Empowerment for Rural Women in Nigeria: Poverty Alleviation through Agriculture

Abstract

Generally, rural women are majorly involved in agricultural activities such as planting, weeding, harvesting, processing and marketing. They also keep some domestic animals and birds. Empowering rural women will go a long way to improving the economic life of the women and also the well-being of individuals, families and the rural communities. Social, cultural traditions and agricultural constraints can limit rural women's economic status. Rural women's limited access to productive resources, low educational level and illiteracy are contributors to rural women's poverty. Illiteracy affects their chances to benefit from newer, non-traditional methods such as: information and communication technologies. The promotion of agricultural development should be through the provision of useful and relevant information to the farming communities by the extension services. The unpaid work that women perform at home and farm are not recognized for official record. There are many constraints making rural women farmers to be lagging behind economically, apart from lack of agricultural information. The main constraints are the lack of personal land and credit. There is evidence that empowering women in multiple ways will contribute to their own food security and nutrition and that of their families. Women are limited in terms of their potential in contributing to agricultural development. Reducing the gender disparities or discrimination will generate significant gains for the agricultural sector. There is the need for national laws and policies that promote women's rights to own land, property and have equal access to credit for their businesses.

Awareness of the health implications of use of biomass energy sources among women in rural households of Jigawa State, Nigeria

“…Table 1 further reveals that Majority of the respondents (73.3 %) had non-formal education, a situation that may impact on the level of awareness of the health implications from the persistent use of biomass energy sources. This assertion is in line with the position of Fabiyi and Akande (2015) who posited that there is the need for a type of education which must equip the receiver with necessary skills to face challenging situations which could be economic, social, political and cultural in nature. The finding is also consistent with the position of Oniye (2009) who noted that Nigerian women are disadvantaged in terms of accessibility to formal education.…”

Welfare Status of Rural Women Agro-processors’ Participants in the Development Partnership in Higher Education Project in Osun and Oyo States, Nigeria

“…These constraints faced in the processing activities could be hindrance to improved productivity. This is confirmed by Fabiyi and Akande (2015) that rural women are faced with constraints in their processing activities, and this reduces their productivity cost of processing equipment, they are not affordable by the respondents individually, hence the need for cooperation by all group members to purchase the equipment and consequent rotation of the equipment among members for utilisation. Women are known for regularity of dues, they are law abiding and since it is the decision of the whole group that certain due is to be levy on members, it becomes imperative for them to comply.…”

Implications of Empowerment Status in Agricultural Production Capabilities of Rural Women in Selected States of Nigeria

“…This suggests that the educational status of respondents is low and this may likely affect their empowerment status. Fabiyi and Akande (2015) reported that women in most rural areas of Nigeria are less educated. Also, the mean annual income of respondents is ₦70,937±67,033.…”