ASSESSMENT OF GENDER IN LIVELIHOOD STRATEGIES IN RURAL AREAS OF SOKOTO STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

A study was carried out to assess household livelihood strategies in rural Sokoto State. For the study, a multi-stage sampling procedure was used, and six local governments (three from each of the state's two ADP zones) were purposefully chosen. Simple random sampling was used to select two villages from each local government area chosen, for a total of twelve villages, and 145 male headed households and 65 female headed households were conveniently selected within villages previously chosen in stage 2, for a total of 210 respondents, which served as the sample size for the study. The findings were examined using both quantitative and qualitative methods. The findings of the study revealed the mean age of the respondents as 43 years. The study shows that 69.0% of the respondents were male household heads while 31.0% were female household heads. Study further revealed that 58.1% of the respondents were full time farmers, 28.9% were traders/business people, and 11.0% were civil servants while 2.4% of the respondents were artisans. The study shows that nearly most (88.3%) of the male-headed households produced one or more types of crop mostly for subsistence on annual basis. Producing annual crop as the only on-farm activity was reported by 41.5% of female households mostly based on rain-fed. This study reveals that 64.1% of males and 76.9% of the female adopted the rearing of small ruminants. The results also revealed that majority of the respondents, 97.9% (male) and 56.9% (female) were engaged in planting and sowing, weeding were mostly male (97.1%) activity compared to female (47.7%) in the study area. The study also found that 40.7% of the male and 49.2% of the females were involved in small enterprises, it was also seen that 80% of the female participated in food vending as against 21.4% of male. The study concluded that several points were persistent throughout the study as a cross-cutting issue of which gender inequality was the major one. There is local social relation based on gender that shapes access and control of the various livelihood assets including the status and role of women in the study community. The study concludes that, Income, primary occupation, secondary occupation and level of education are the major socio-factors that affect livelihood choice of household heads in the study area. Furthermore, both Male household heads and Female household heads engaged in combined livelihood activities with variation in the degree of dependence and proportion on certain livelihood strategies. Insecurity was the major challenge faced in the study area. The study recommends critical examination of socio-cultural barriers which impedes women’s participation in socio-economic development.