Assessment of Women's Involvement in Poultry Production in Ogun State

This study assessed women's involvement in poultry production activities in Ogun State, Nigeria. Multi-stage random sampling was used to select a total of one hundred and forty (140) women involved in poultry production activities. Data was analyzed with descriptive statistics such as mean, frequency and standard deviation while the hypotheses were tested with linear regression and Spearman-ranked correlation at p≤0.05 level of significance. Results revealed that the average age of the women was 40 years, married (87.9%) with average years of experience and household size of 9 years and 6 persons respectively. Women sourced poultry production-related information from poultry associations (94.3%), social media (85.7%) and family and friends (77.1%). The major factors influencing women's involvement in poultry production were greater financial independence (4.63), improved access to better health facilities (4.60) and self-reliance (4.51). The constraints associated with women's involvement in poultry production were limited access to modern technology (1.48), inadequate capital (1.43) and the problem of weather variability (1.41). Significant relationship existed between women involvement in poultry production and marital status (t=2.441), household size (t=5.541), amount realized from poultry business (t=-2.833), lack of access to credit and finance (r= -0.262) and incidence of pest and diseases (r= -0.179), improved household food and nutrition security (r= 0.249), increased workload (r= 0.179), less time for self-improvement (r= 0.350), lack of submissiveness of some women to their husbands (r= -0.340) and less friction in the family with regards to resource management (r= 0.175). In conclusion, women's involvement in poultry production activities was low. It was therefore recommended that women should be supported by the government through the provision of credit facilities for improved participation in poultry production activities.