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Analysis of the impact of production technology and gender on under-utilised indigenous vegetables production in south-western Nigeria

We quantified the impact of new production technologies on total land area allocated to production of six (ugu, igbagba, tete atetedaye, woorowo, ogunmo and odu) selected high-premium under-utilised indigenous vegetables (UIVs) in south-western Nigeria. Leaf yields and accruable returns were estimated by comparing the data for these parameters at the commencement of the project in 2011 (through a baseline survey) with the same set of parameters after three years (in 2013) of project implementation. Through a structured interview and focus group discussion involving 134 randomly selected respondents (59 women and 75 men) from the 350 UIVs cooperative members in the rainforest and derived savanna agroecologies in four states (Oyo, Ondo, Osun and Ekiti) of south-western Nigeria, we studied the gender gap between male and female farmers with respect to access to productive farm resources. The data obtained were analysed using appropriate descriptive and inferential statistics. On average across south-western Nigeria in 2013, areas of 7.67, 7.0, 5.6, 1.9, 2.83 and 0.72 ha were planted to ugu, igbagba, tete atetedaye, woorowo, ogunmo and odu, respectively, compared to areas in 2011 of 0.3, 0.2, 0.6, 0, 0.32 and 0 ha, respectively. Yield analyses showed that the productivity of ugu, igbagba, tete atetedaye, woorowo, ogunmo and odu increased by 62%, 67%, 60%, 100%, 64% and 100%, respectively, as a result of the seeding rate technology applied between 2011 and 2013. More than 80% of the male and female respondents were aged between 31 and 60 years and possessed mean UIV farming experience of 18.7 years (males) and 13.4 years (females). The average farm area was 3.4 ha for men and 2.8 ha for women. The difficulty in accessing agrochemicals, modern technologies and marketing outlets was skewed towards females. We identified inadequate finance, lack of storage facilities, marketing outlets, multiple household responsibilities, lack of technology, lack of inputs and gender inequality as some of the problems associated with UIV production as perceived by both male and female respondents. Age (r = 0.290) and farming experience (r = 0.216) of female UIVs farmers, and age (r = 0.300), farming experience (r = 0.226), education (r = 0.363) and income (r = 0.224) of male UIV farmers were positively correlated with access to production resources (p≤0.01). In conclusion, there is a need to drop policies that are less favourable to rural women and to focus on the appreciation of their role as producers of wealth, and additionally to strengthen the network of public services in rural areas, including education and welfare services.