Contribution of Non-Farm Income Generating Activities to Rural Women Wellbeing in Rivers State, Nigeria

The research assessed the contribution of non-farm income generating activities to rural women wellbeing in Rivers state, Nigeria. The study adopted descriptive survey design; multistage sampling procedure was used to select 280 respondents for the study. Descriptive and inferential statistics like frequencies, mean score, percentages and t test were used to present and analyse collected data from the respondents. The results showed that the major areas of contribution of non-farm income generating activities to rural women household welfare were household feeding (𝑥̅= 3.96), health care (𝑥̅= 3.96), improved housing (𝑥̅= 3.95), children’s education (𝑥̅= 3.95), purchase of clothing (𝑥̅= 3.94) and personal savings (𝑥̅= 3.94). Non-farm income generating activities have contributed to rural women household food security to a very high extent in stability of food (𝑥̅=3.28) and access to food (𝑥̅=3.27). The major problems facing rural women in their involvement in non-farm activity was increasing costs of fuel and other needs materials (𝑥̅=3.42), lack of adequate fund (𝑥̅=3.41), bad state of road (𝑥̅=3.40), lack of credit facilities (𝑥̅=3.35) and poor infrastructure (𝑥̅=3.29). There is a significant relationship between non-farm income-generating activities and their level of contribution to the welfare of rural women in the study area. The study recommends that financial institutions should be encouraged to establish banks in rural areas to help these rural women have access to loan so they can alleviate poverty in their households.