Constraints Militating Women Farmers Involvement in Agroforestry Practice as a Recommended Production Practice in Mbaitoli Local Government Area of Imo State Nigeria

Abstract

The study analyzed constraints militating against women farmers’ involvement in agroforestry practice as a recommended production practice in Mbaitoli local government area in Imo state Nigeria. The specific objective of the study was to: determine reasons for practicing agroforestry as perceived by women farmers; identify constraints militating women farmers’ involvement in agroforestry practices in the study area as perceived by women farmers. Data was collected through structured questionnaire administered to 270 rural women farmers. Four communities were purposively sampled based on their rurality and intensity in agroforestry practices. From a list of 2700 rural women farmers obtained from Imo State Agricultural Development Programme (IADP), about 10 percent of women farmers involved in agroforestry were randomly selected from the selected village used for the study to give 270 women farmers been the sample size for the study. The analytical tools employed were percentages, mean and standard deviations. Results showed that Land Security and High incidence of bush fire, Low awareness of agroforestry practice were the major constraints militating against women farmers’ involvement in agroforestry.  Findings of the study reveal that women practiced agroforestry because it provides food, income, raw materials, women had control of what they eat. Based on the findings of this study, it is recommended that women should be more vigilant in securing and protecting their agroforestry farms, land boundaries by mobilizing youths to keep watch along boundary lines so as to prevent encroachment. Furthermore, policy measures that would guarantee awareness-raising campaign to sensitize woman farmers on agroforestry as a profitable venture and this can be achieved through workshops, radio programmes and community awareness campaign, as this will invariably improve women farmers’ knowledge and rural livelihood of the nation.