Women's involvement in agriculture in northern and southern Kaduna State, Nigeria

The position of women in meeting the challenges of agricultural development cannot be overemphasized. Women make a significant contribution to food production and processing, but men seem to take more of the farm decisions and control the productive resources. Full participation of women is required to increase agricultural productivity; which can only be achieved when women are perceived as subjects of development. Towards this end, a study was conducted in Kaduna State of Nigeria with a random sample of 230 women to examine the status of women's involvement in the agricultural sector. Data were collected by administering a structured questionnaire to the women. Analysis of the data was done using descriptive statistics and the logit regression model. It was observed that women had a low rate of involvement in farm decisions (41.53%) and could not adequately access productive resources (11.25%). The satisfaction derived from agriculture by the women was low and significantly related to the size of household farm and share of the farm income that reached them.