Gender Impacts of Small-Scale Farm Households on Agricultural Commercialisation in Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

Commercialization of subsistence agriculture in developing countries has led to different levels of production and consumption changes for men and women. This study therefore investigated the gender impacts of farm household resource allocation on agricultural commercialization in Nigeria. Results revealed that the majority of the household heads were male (65%) with an average age of 47years. 96% were married, 2% were single, 2% were divorced with an average household size of 6 members. The majority of the farmers operated on a small scale level. The linear regression result showed that farm size, income, land tenure, food security, level of education in relation to gender factor were variables that had impact on agricultural commercialization at 1%, 5%, and 10%  levels of significance respectively. Food security and labor cost had a negative relationship with agricultural commercialization. It was concluded that gender positively affects small-scale farm household agricultural commercialization of food crops in Oyo state, Nigeria. The study recommends improvement of price policy and farm income through provision of subsidies to farmers.