Gender Analysis of Land Fragmentation among Farming Households in Saki-East Local Government Area Oyo State, Nigeria

Land fragmentation is still incessant among smallholder farmers in Nigeria and its unwarranted practice creates a gap in cropland productivity. Perhaps, the issue of gender inequality instigates fragmentation of agricultural lands as against land consolidation policy, its considerably a further research concern. In view of this, the current research investigates the gendered effect of land fragmentation among farming households in Saki-East Local Government Area of Oyo State, Nigeria. Primary data were collected from 110 farmers consisted of 55 each of men and women respondents with designed questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, Simpson index and fractional logit regression were analytical techniques. The analysis showed that the mean age was 52.85 and 49.65years, the farm experience of 22.13 and 17.89 years and on-farm income of N5405000 and N1264619 for both sexes respectively. The spatial farm distance was found to be 5.09 and 4.49km2, while farm size cultivated was 4.29 and 2.14 hectares on the average for male and female rural households. Majority of men acquired farms through rented land while most women relied on inherited lands for farming. A Simpson index of 0.332 and 0.446 derived from men and women data respectively explained the extent of land fragmentation within farming households. Fractional logit regression revealed that land fragmentation is exogenously determined by on-farm income, cost of land preparation, land rent, land tenure security and the location of farm sites in case of males. However, only cost of land preparation and land rented significantly driven fragmentation of agricultural land among female counterparts. Also, the statistical t-test signified a variance in means between the two groups. It was recommended that the investments on land should be incentives for smallholder farmers to lessen fragmentation of holdings and also land tenure patterns should be reformed for aggregation of all small parcels into a large holding as well as a productive land use.