EFFECT OF GENDER AND LAND ACCESS ON PERFORMANCE OF CASSAVA PRODUCERS IN OSUN STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study examined the effect of gender and land access on performance of cassava producers in Osun State, Nigeria. The study specifically described and compared socio economic characteristics of male and female headed cassava producing households; Categories respondents by level of land accessibility; Examine the yield and profitability by gender across the level of land accessibility; Determine productivity of cassava production by gender across the level of land accessibility; and Analyse the factors influencing performance of male and female headed households across the level of land accessibility. A multi-stage sampling procedure was employed to select 180 respondents, consisting of ninety (90) male and ninety (90) female headed households producing cassava from the study area. The collected data were analysed using descriptive statistics, gross margin, return on investment, total factor productivity, seemingly unrelated regression and analysis of variance. The study revealed that on the average, the male and female headed households were still in their active ages with a mean age of 51.7 and 41.4 years; About (26.0%) of the male headed household had secondary school education. While about (28.0%) of the female headed household had secondary education. Most (88.9%) of the male headed households were married, whereas most (41.1%) of the female headed households were separated. In addition, the mean household size of the male headed and female headed households were about 7 and 6 persons respectively. Most (55.6%) of the male headed households acquired land through inheritance while most (34.4%) of the female headed household acquired their lands through inheritance. furthermore, the level of land acquisition identified in the study area are good access, fair access, restricted access and the analysis of farmland revealed that about (80.0%) of the male headed households and about (63.3%) of the female headed households had good access to farmland. cassava production under fair access was most profitable across the level of land accessibility given the values of gross margin to be N27,410.61. More so, the highest average gross margin was recorded to be N26,552.08 by male headed households under fair access while the highest gross margin was recorded to be N22,412.17 by female headed households under restricted access. Cassava production is a profitable venture in the study area since the average gross margin realized is greater than zero across the level of land accessibility. The yield level of cassava production within groups of land accessibility indicated majority (51.9% and 45.0%) of respondents under good access and restricted access have a yield lesser than 30000kg/ha. Also, majority (50.0% and 66.7%) of the male and female headed household under fair access have a yield within (30000 – 39999 kg/ha). Although both the male and female headed households have access to land but the female headed households under fair access have the highest yield in the study area. The result of TFP in the study revealed that the male headed households under restricted access and female headed households under fair access had the highest average TFP. The male headed households recorded an average TFP of 1.55 under restricted access while the female headed households recorded an average TFP of 1.72 respectively. This implied that the female headed households on the average are more productive than their male counterpart in the study area. The findings of the study revealed that factors such as age (p-value < 0.05), marital status (p-value < 0.05), farm size (p-value < 0.001), farm distance to home (p-value < 0.05), farm distance to market (p-value < 0.05), access to extension services (p-value < 0.05) and occupation (p-value < 0.05). significantly influenced performance by gender and across the level of land accessibility in the study area. Thus, it was therefore recommended that government should formulate polices on land acquisition that will favour those farmers that have restricted access to land by providing them with farmlands and modern farm inputs at no cost in order to increase their productivity, since they are small scale farmers and they rent their lands. In order to expand their production