PARTICIPATION OF RURAL WOMEN FOR EFFECTIVE AND SUSTAINABLE FOOD CROP PRODUCTION AND IMPROVED INCOME GENERATION IN NIGERIA

The paper reviews the participation of rural women for effective and sustainable food crop production and improved income generation in Nigeria. It begins with sustainable agricultural production, representing a broad spectrum of agricultural methodology, which supports the environment. This is followed by the strategies for sustainable agricultural production, which extends to food crops production strategies. In Nigeria, women were found to produce over 80 percent of her food products despite their responsibilities for household work; they were found to know they could produce most of the food. Increase in yields on their women’s farms could increase by 20 to 30 percent if women had the same access to productive resources as men, thereby raising total agricultural output in developing countries by 2.5 to 4 percent, which could in turn reduce the number of hungry people in the world by 12 to 17 percent. Worldwide, women produce over 50 per cent of all food grown and in most of the developing nations, Nigeria inclusive, the face of farming is female. The major food crops produced by women include beans, sesame, cassava, groundnuts, maize (corn), melon, millet, rice, sorghum, soybeans and yams. It is imperative, therefore, to encourage the participation of rural women for effective and sustainable food crop production and improved income generation in Nigeria.