Gender Dimension Of Livelihood Activities Among Farmers In Kagarko Local Government Area Of Kaduna State, Nigeria

This study aimed to examine the gender analysis of diversification among rural farmers. Primary and secondary data was used. The primary data was obtained by means of a structured questionnaire. Questionnaires were used to collect information from one hundred and fifty respondents randomly selected from the five districts. Descriptive statistics such as percentages and frequency was used. The Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) was used for the analysis of the gender disparities in the various livelihood enterprises such as on-farm, non-farm self-employed enterprises and wage labour. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was employed to test whether there is a significant difference in the mean number of livelihood activities engaged in by women as comparedwith that of men. Socio-economic characteristics of the working age respondents covered in the survey such as household size, marital status, access to credit and working hours per day were found to differ between men and women. The result of the Analysisof Variance (ANOVA) revealed that a significant difference exist between male and female farmers. The number of the respondents engaged in food crop production, paid wage labour and the number of livelihood diversification activities in on-farm and off-farm are significant at P≤0.05. The analysis revealed significant gender difference in the number of livelihood activities engaged in by men and women. Conclusively, the socio-economic characteristics of the working age respondents such as household size, marital status, access to credit and working hours per day was found to be different between men and women. The results of the Analysis of Variance revealed a difference between male and female farmers in the number of hours spent for paid wage labour which was significant at P≤0.05. The study recommends thatfarmers should be able to access credit to enhance their livelihood activities at least at the Local Government level and also farmers should be encouraged to participate in off-farm activities which have the capacity to generate more income for the household.