Utilization of Community Leadership Engagement Strategies toward Promotion of Sustainable Agriculture among Rural Women in Rivers State

Abstract

This study examined was to examine utilization of community leadership engagement strategies toward promotion of sustainable agriculture among rural women in Rivers State. The study was guided by two research questions and two hypotheses. The research design adopted in the study was a descriptive survey research design. The population of the study comprised 815 respondents, comprising 54 leaders and 761 members of the 18 community-based organizations (CBOs) in the seven (7) Local Government Areas of the Rivers South East senatorial district. The sample size for the study was four hundred and eight (408) respondents, comprising 54 leaders and 354 members who are registered members and leaders of the community-based organizations in the seven local government areas studied. The instrument for data collection was a self-structured questionnaire titled " Questionnaire on Utilization of Community Leadership Engagement Strategies toward Promotion of Sustainable Agriculture among Rural Women in Rivers State “(UCLESPSA)”. The instrument items were structured on a modified four (4)-point Likert scale rated on Very High Extent VHE (4), High Extent, HE (3), Low Extent LE (2), and Very Low Extent VLE (1).The instrument was validated by experts and the reliability coefficient index was 0.83, which were obtained through Cronbach Alpha reliability. The data collected was analyzed using Mean Score and Standard Deviation to answer the research questions, while a z-test was used to test the hypotheses at a 0.05 level of significance. Based on the findings, it was concluded that using leadership engagement strategies is a real way to get rural women to work in agriculture in a way that is sustainable. Therefore, it was recommended among that community larders should use collaboration as a strategy to gain insight into talent concentration, additional resources, experience, and good governance for growth, high performance, and competitiveness.