Women participation in homestead fish farming in North Central Nigeria

H Y Ibrahim and H Yahaya

Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension, Faculty of Agriculture
Nasarawa State University, Keffi, Shabu –Lafia Campus PMB 135 Lafia, Nigeria
Hussein464@yahoo.com

Abstract

The study determined the role of women in homestead fish farming in Nasarawa state. A purposive sampling technique was used to collect data from twenty two women through a structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and a participation index were used for data analysis.

Women moderately participated in homestead fish production. The women require training on fish feed formulation, raising of fingerlings and disease control. The constraints affecting women in homestead fish farming were lack of capital and preoccupation with other household chores. The study recommends the provision of training for women on feed formulation, raising of fingerling and disease control. In addition, women in the study area should link with micro-finance banks in order to obtain the credits or capital they require.

Keywords: aquaculture, constraints, index, likert scale, training needs

Introduction

It is generally accepted that women participate actively in the rural economy due to their social and economic roles. According to Ani (2004), women are the backbone of agriculture labour force producing 40 % of the gross domestic product (GDP) and over 50 % of food in developing nations. The rural economy in Nigeria is dominated by women through their participation in crop and animal production, marketing as well as processing (Adeyokunnu 1981). Women have important roles as producers of food, managers of resources and as income earners (Agnes et al 1995). Women are the mainstay of small scale agriculture. They supply the farm labour and are responsible for the family subsistence.

The participation of women in aquaculture extends to every aspect of fish farming like preparing fish feed, feeding the fish, cleaning of nets/cages and general maintenance and upkeep of the pond or cages (FAO 1985). Homestead fish farming is the most suitable option for women to be involved in, since it does not require them to be away from their homes for long periods which might force them to neglect their household or domestic responsibilities (FAO 1985). It is particularly suitable for women in parts of northern Nigeria where women seclusion is practiced. The home base fishery establishments are usually operated by the family or household members. They are characterized by small-scale operation, low capital investment, simple labour-intensive technology. These establishments produce fishery products such as cat fish.

The roles of women in livestock production have either been ignored or underestimated (IFAD 2007). In the fishery sub sector in particular, men have always been the target of the extension agents despite the fact that without the indispensable labour provided by their womenfolk, men operating homestead fish farms would be saddled with more work than they can handle. Even though there is no consensus on quantifying the role of women in livestock production, there is clear indication that their contribution is quite significant (Jothilakshmi et al 2009). 

However, to ensure sustainability in homestead fish production and to provide substantial income for women, there may be need to develop an extension system that is gender specific and tailored towards women. This can be achieved if the level of women’s involvement in homestead fish production in north central Nigeria is determined and in addition, if the constraints they face and their training needs are identified. If the identified training needs of women involved in home stead fish production are used in the design of the training content, then the training becomes more effective in enhancing the skills and competence of women.  
 

Methodology

The study was conducted in Nasarawa State which is located in north central Nigeria. A purposive sampling technique was adopted for the study. This was because some household heads did not allow their spouses to be interviewed. Thus, 22 households with homestead fish farms willing to be interviewed were used for the study. Primary data were collected through the administration of a structured questionnaire. Data were collected on the socio- economic characteristics of the respondents, nature of their involvement in fish production, training needs and the constraints encountered.  Simple descriptive statistics and a participation index were used to analyze the data. A participation index was computed using a 3 point Likert scale. The women were requested to indicate there level of participation in 14 management practices involved in homestead fish production. The 3 point scale was weighed in order of importance from not involved l, moderately involved 2, and actively involved 3.The mean score for each item was obtained by dividing the total score obtained by the number of respondents (22). The grand mean score for all the management practices was calculated by dividing the total mean score by 14 which is the number of management practices. The scale below was used to determine the level of participation for each activity involved in homestead fish production.

Level of participation    Participation index score

• Actively involved         > 2. 9

• Moderately involved    2-2.9

• Not involved                1-1.9

Socio economic characteristics of respondents

The Socio economic characteristics of women in homestead fish production are presented in Table 1. Most of the women (54.5%) fall within the age range of 31-40. The proportion of younger women in livestock production was relatively small (31.8%). The result also shows that majority (77.3%) of women involved in homestead fish production were married 13.6% and 9.10% of the sampled respondents were single and widowed respectively. Majority (45.5%) of the respondents have no formal education. This findings agrees with that of Aqeela et al (2005) that two third of the one billion of illiterate persons in the world are women and girls. Majority (68.2%) of the respondents did not associate themselves with any form of co-operative participation. The reason for this may be because the women are ignorant of the fact that cooperative membership contributes significantly to women’s economic activities (Murray 2006 and Ani et al., 2009.  The study also shows that majority (63.6%) of the respondents had between 1-2 years of experience in homestead fish production. The implication is that women in the study area were not quite experienced on fish production. Furthermore, most of the women (47.4%) pointed out that homestead fish production was initiated by their husbands. Majority (81.1%) of the respondents kept Clarias (cat fish) species and only 18.2% kept tilapia.

Women’s involvement in management practices for homestead fish farming

Feeding of fish (Mean =2.94), cleaning of ponds (Mean =2.90) and changing of water (Mean =2.90) are the management practices that women actively participated in (Table 2). This result is similar to that of FAO (1985) that women participation in aquaculture extends to every aspects of fish farming like feeding of fish, cleaning of nets, preparing fish feed and general maintenance and upkeep of pond. Women moderately participated in activities such as sampling (Mean =2.50) Harvesting (Mean =2.18), feed formulation (Mean =2.68) and stocking (Mean =2.67). Women in the study area never participated in activities such as pond construction (Mean =1.65), medication (Mean 1.90) and spawning (Mean =1.53). The grand mean for the participation index (Mean = 2.31) indicates that women in the study area moderately participated in the management practices for homestead fish production.

 Constraints faced by women in homestead fish farming

The major constraint to women involvement in homestead fish production was inadequate capital which ranked first and was pointed out by about 91% of the women (Table 3). This was followed by the pre-occupation with other household chores. Yisehak (2008) reported that women in agricultural sector are involved in home production activities which involve child care, food preparation and carrying of water and fuel. Dominance by spouses ranked third as a constraint to homestead fish production by women.

Training needs of women involved in homestead fish production

The major areas where training is required by women involved in homestead fish production are presented in Table 4. Feed formulation, disease control, rising of fingerlings and marketing ranked 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th respectively as the major areas where technical assistance or training is required by the respondents.

Conclusion and Recommendations

Women in the study area are only moderately involved in homestead fish production due to inadequate capital, pre-occupation with household chores and dominance by their spouses. The following recommendations are hereby suggested in order to enhance the participation of women in homestead fish farming:

• The women should be encouraged to participate in cooperative societies.

  
  

• There is need to organized training on fish feed formulation, raising of fingerlings and disease control for women involved in homestead fish production.

  
  

• Women in the study area should be linked with micro-finance banks in order to have access to credit which can be used to increase their level of participation in fish production.

  
  

• The men in study area should be sensitized on the need to free up women’s time to enable them have more time for other non-household economic activities.

References

Adeyokunnu T O 1981 Women in Agriculture in Nigeria.ST/ECA/ARCN/81/11:Economic Commission for Africa, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.  

Agnes R Lynn R Christine P 1995 Women: The key to food security .food policy report. The international food policy research institute .Washington, D.C. pp1-14.

Ani A O 2004 Women in Agriculture and Rural Development. Priscaquilla Publishers, Maiduguri, Nigeria.

Ani A O 2009 Economic contribution of women to groundnut production in rural areas Borno State. Asian Pacific Journal of Rural Development 19 (2):47-55.

Aqeela S  Tanuir A Munir and Mohammed Z 2005 Gender participation in livestock production activities and their consumption tend of portentous diet in TEHSIL FATEH JUNG. Pakistan Journal of Agriculture Science 42: 3-4.

Food and Agricultural Organization 1985 A Review Study of the Sungai Merbok flooting Cago culture project. Project Code TCP/MAL/403 Technical Report 2, Rome.

Murray C 2006 Social capital and cooperation in central and eastern Europe: Towards and analytical framework. Handbook of the 26^th conference of the international association of agricultural economics .Queensland Australia 12^th-18^th August 2006.

IFAD 2007 Women livestock managers in the third world:a focus on technical .Retrieved from http://www.ifad.org/gender/thematic/livestock/live_2.htm

Jothilashmi M krishnaraj R and Sudeepkumar N K 2009 Empowering the members of women SHGs in livestock farming through need based trainings. Asian Pacific Journal of Rural Development 19 (2):31-45.

Yisehak K 2008 Gender responsibility in small older mixed crop livestock production system of Jimma zone, south West Ethiopia. Livestock Research for Rural Development. Volume 20. Article 11. Retrieved October 2009 from http://www.lrrd.org/lrrd20/1/yise20011.htm

Received 10 August 2010; Accepted 17 December 2010; Published 1 February 2011

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