Rural Women Farmers’ Empowerment in Kwara State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study assessed rural women empowerment in Kwara State, Nigeria. The specific objectives were to: identify the sources of empowerment among women farmers; identify the forms of empowerment among women farmers; ascertain the benefits of empowerment among women farmers; and identify the challenges to empowerment of women farmers. A multistage sampling procedure was employed to select one hundred and fifty (150) respondents. Data were collected using structured interview schedule and analysed using percentage, mean, and standard deviation. Findings revealed that the majority (90.0%) of the respondents relied on women’s groups and spousal support (86.7%) as primary sources of empowerment. The result shows that personal empowerment (100.0%) and psychological empowerment (98.0%) were the major forms of empowerment experienced by the women. Furthermore, empowerment benefits were financial independence (=4.59; SD=0.49), Decision-making confidence (=4.71; SD=0.46), workforce participation (=3.55; SD=0.70).Major challenges to empowerment included education/training gaps ( =2.16), resource scarcity (=2.10), and poverty (=2.04). The rural women farmers exhibited moderate empowerment. The study therefore recommended that women empowerment should be strengthened by the government through adult literacy programs.