ISSN 2360-7971
Abstract
Accepted 28th May, 2018.
The study examined the gender differentials in farm activities and its implication on agricultural development. Secondary data from unpublished project survey in Birnin gwari LGA of Kaduna state were used for the paper. The data were previously collected by the researcher with aid of structured questionnaire using simple random sampling technique from one hundred (100) respondents in five (5) districts of Randagi, Kakangi, Doxa, Saulawa and Birnin-gwari. The data were analyse and presented using frequency distribution and percentages. Result shows that most of the respondents were male and married (78.75%), aged between 21 and 60 (88.75%), only few had formal education (35%), most had above 10 years farming experience (78.3%) and majority of the respondents cultivates above 5 hectares as farm size (62.5%). On major crops cultivated by these farmers’ cereals toped (53.75%) followed by vegetables (31.25%), then legumes (8.75%) while roots and tubers were the least (6.25%) cultivated crops. On type of labour utilized by respondents, hired labour came top (100%), followed by family and community labour (86%) while mechanical power (14%) was the least patronized. Result of gender participation in farm activities as reported by the respondent’s shows that the male gender dominated in 5 farm activities including land clearing (81.25%), tillage (86.25%), pesticide application (87.5%), fertilizer application (56.25%) and irrigation (62.5%) out of the 16 farm activities. On the other hand respondent’s report shows that female gender dominated in 11 farm activities of planting (72.5%), transplanting (75%), manual weeding (93.75%), mulching (60%), stalking (83.75%), harvesting (72.5%), dehusking (93.75%), threshing (87.5%), winnowing (91.25%), processing (91.25%) and transporting to store (86.25%) out of the 16 farm activities. It was concluded that the female labour are more involved in farm activities than their male counter parts in the study area. Recommendation was made for Agricultural researchers, NGOs and development partner to help introduce labour saving technologies especially in farm activities carried out by female gender so as to reduce their labour burden.
Keywords: Gender, Differentials, Farm and Agricultural Development.