Demand-Driven Technologies for Sustainable Maize ... - IITA

333having a poor level of participation, those with a mean score between2 and 3 had an average level of participation, while groups with scoresgreater than 3 had a good level of participation.Data collected from the respondents were subjected to frequencycounts and expressed in percentages. To assess the changes in thelevel of agricultural production due to women’s involvement in groupactivities, a comparism of their pre- and post-group formation levelsof involvement was done using t-test. The Spearman rank correlationanalysis was used to determine the degree and type of associationsamong the factors affecting women’s participation in group activities,including maize production.Results and DiscussionCharacteristics of women groupsAs shown in Table 2, 42% of the groups had less than 20 memberswhile 37% had 21-30 members. About 63% of the group memberswere less than 40 years of age. This shows that majority of the groupmembers were suffi ciently young to possess the energy needed tocarry out agricultural activities. The modal class for family size was5-10, which contained 63% of the members. Only about 25% of themembers had attended primary school; 57% did not have any formaleducation. About 86% of group members indicated crop farmingas their main occupation while 71% kept livestock as a secondaryoccupation. About 30% of group members earned an annual incomewithin the range of N40,000-N50,000.00.Level of involvement of women in agricultural activitiesThe agricultural activities investigated in this study included maizeproduction, poultry keeping and small ruminant production. Theresults showed that 99%, 85% and 75% of the groups were involvedin the production of maize, small ruminant and poultry (Table 3).These activities were embarked upon by groups to earn cash and asa source of protein for the family. About 39% of individual membersalso had 51-75% level of involvement in maize production. The t-testvalue (3.29; P≤0.01) showed a signifi cant difference between the levelof women’s involvement in agricultural activities pre- and post-groupformation (Table 3).Reasons for women’s involvement in agricultural activitiesGroup members had various reasons for getting involved in agriculturalactivities. The reasons, in order of importance, were source of income,interest, and family tradition. About 71%, 49% and 45% of memberswere engaged in maize production, small ruminant production andpoultry keeping to increase their income. About 56% produced maize