An Assessment of Rural Women Participation and Efforts Towards Sustainable Agricultural Development in Ikenne Local Government (2016 – 2020)

Abstract

This paper highlighted that rural women play pivotal roles in agricultural and rural development, even much more than their male counterparts. Although not denying the supportive roles of the men in attaining their production goals, the work explores rural women’s participation in agricultural productive activities such as planting the seedlings, weeding, and interval intercultural operation of the crops. The objective of these studies was to assess the extent to which rural women in the Ikenne Local Government were involved in the productive efforts of two major agricultural produce – Ugu vegetable (pumpkin vegetables) and the corn seedlings in various farms locations. This study focused on the role of women working with full passion in the production of these crops right from the soil preparation through tillage, local manur styles till it is harvested and further into the marketing and storage of these crops for the next planting season; a chain of productive forces just to make ends meet and to sustain their families. For this study, two villages/towns Ilishan-Remo and Ikenne-Remo were selected according to their experiences on these crops and for their proximity to the university and convenience of the research. Results accessed showed formal training on the production of these crops and management. From the overall studies, it was assumed that the maximum percentage of the farmers of these regions adopted indigenous knowledge for the cultivation of these crops including all cultural practices for raising the crops as well as in the post-harvest marketing activities also. The paper through its findings stressed that the public, private sectors, and NGOs in both local governments need to introduce diversity management programs in order to reduce the poverty levels of these rural women in agricultural production. The concluding section of the work recommends some policies that would stimulate these determined producers to such levels that could enable them to grow into big-time farmers and be able to contribute meaningfully to their communities and beyond.