1.0 Introduction
1.1 Background to the study
Women can be described as an indispensible group in the development of any nation (Safiya, 2011). Women play significant and potentially transformative roles in agricultural growth in developing countries, but they face unrelenting obstacles and economic constraints limiting further contribution in agriculture.Women are responsible, in addition to seeking livelihoods, for keeping their homes and providing for their children (Lawanson,2003). Women have great potentials necessary to evolve a new economic order, to accelerate social and political development and consequently transform the society into a better one (Safiya, 2011). Kayodeet al., (2013) described Nigerian women as a crucial factor for production.
According to him, they assume this status because they are largely responsible for the bulk of crops production, agro-based food processing, preservation of crops and distribution of outputs or products from farm centers to urban areas. The importance of women in the agricultural development as stated above cannot be overemphasized and this has led to the empowerment of more women in production and processing of various crops such as Cassava, maize and yam.
The Government in collaboration with other private bodies has helped to empower women in order to improve their standard of living. Empowering women can mean the provision of sufficient opportunities to women to develop their potentials and contribute to the overall development of the nation. Empowering women particularly in the area of agriculture has been done using cassava which is a low risk crop with high yielding potential and a developed market for its sales.Cassava has been identified as a very powerful poverty fighter by driving down the price of food to millions of consumers (Iheke, 2008).
Cassava is the third-largest source of food carbohydrates in the tropics. Uche et al., (2008) stated that Cassava is a staple food crop in Kwara State consumed majorly as gari by households with a population of about2,371,089million people. Nigeria is the world's largest producer of cassava; its production is put at about 37.5 million metric tonnes per year (Food Agricultural Organization, 2013). This production performance has rated Nigeria as the largest cultivator of cassava in the world. In 2002, cassava suddenly gained prominence in Nigeria following the pronouncement of a presidential initiative on the crop. The initiative was aimed at using cassava production as the engine of growth in Nigeria. In recent times, government has encouraged the use of the crop to produce a wide range of industrial products such as syrup and bread (Fakayode et al., 2008).
Cassava can be cultivated with family labour, land, hoe and machete, making it analternative and low-risk crop for poor women farmers. Also, cassava is available to low- income rural households in the farming of simple food products which are significantly cheaper than grains such as rice, maize and wheat (FAO, 2006).Cassava is mainly produced by small scale farmers in rural communities and is primarily consumed in the form of garri or fufu (Iheke, 2008). However, cassava can be processed into several other product like chips, flour, pellets, adhesives, alcohol and starch which are raw materials for livestock feed, alcohol/ethanol, textiles, confectionery, wood and food industries (Iheke, 2008). The crop has continually played vital roles as source of income to farmers, low cost food source for both the rural and urban dwellers as well as household food security (Nweke, 1996).These features have endowed it with a special capacity to bridge the gap in food security and poverty alleviation(Clair et al., 2000).The idea of food security was presented for the first time at the World Food Conference in 1974 viewed solely from the perspective of having adequate availability of food on a national scale. Today, it is a condition in which all people have access at all times to enough food of an adequate nutritional quality for a healthy and active life (Tollens, 2000).
There are four dimensions to this:
- Availability of sufficient amount of food which is a function of food production
- Stability of supply over time which depends on the ability to preserve/store produced food and supplement available food through imports if necessary
- Access to the available food which depends on income levels and its distribution and
- Food utilization which encompasses procurement, ingestion and digestion all of which are dependent on nutritional quality, education and health (Tollens, 2000).
Food security exists at both the macro and micro levels. National Food Security (NFS), the macro dimension, is possession by a nation of the capacity to procure enough food through production or imports to feed its population and one of the ways in achieving food security is by empowering the people. Empowerment is both a process and an outcome. Depending on how it is used, the two are indistinguishable. Empowerment has for the most part remained rooted in the local communities, in the needs of the „poorest of the poor? especially women (Desai and Potter, 2008).
Women's empowerment is therefore more than simply a „motherhood? term for development agencies (Desai and Potter, 2008). According to the Ghanaian Times (2006), Women empowerment concerns itself with giving women the ability or opportunity to better their own lives and society in general. It has nothing to do with competition with men but rather partnering and complementing to ensure growth and prosperity for a nation. Buvinic (2006), posited that women empowerment is not only a holistic concept but also multi-dimensional in its approach and covers social, political, economic and social aspects. EmpoweringNigerian women is important because they labour and live under stress andare overwhelmed by the responsibilities in their lives; those created by the society and themselves and they are expected to perform their traditional roles such as running their homes efficiently and be good wives and step-mothers. They are also expected to contribute to their family income so that the household income will increase when combined with that of the male household head. Nweke etal.,(2002) stated that women in cassava production can be empowered through the provision of improved cassava varieties, use of fertilizer, use of agrochemicals, and use of improved harvesting equipment.
Women are and have always been users of technology as well as men. The issue is the kind of technologies women use for different kinds of activities and the position of women in production process, such that they can acquire and utilize new technologies. Hence, the introduction of the Root and Tuber Expansion Programme (RTEP) which was designed with the overall objective of achieving a sustained increase in the production of cassava, yam, cocoyam and potatoes as well as their end products. RTEPwas planned by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) in conjunction with the Federal Government of Nigeria following the completion of cassava multiplication project (CMP) (Ugwu, et al., 1996).
In December 1999, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) approved a credit of 23.05 million U.S. Dollars to the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) for RTEP. The main thrust of the programme was to consolidate gains made under the cassava multiplication programme (CMP) in order to enhance national food security and income for poor farmers(Ugwu, et al., 1996). According to the RTEP implementation manual, (Kwara State Agricultural Development Programme, 2006), the program focused on available low-cost technologies that could be easily adopted by poor farmers, a combination of improved cassava, yam, sweet potatoes and cocoyam varieties, and also improved cultural practices, given the high cost of inputs and the restricted access to credit by small scale farmers. The project aimed at exposing farmers to improved root and tuber crops production and processing technique designed to fit into the existing root and tuber based farming systems in Nigeria. The goal of RTEP was to improve the living conditions, incomes and food security of small holder households in the project area through increases in the production of the RTEP crops as well as processing and marketing of their end product (KWADP, 2006). The overall target group is about 5.2 million small holders with less than 2 to 3 hectares of land holding per household in Nigeria. This translates to about 200,000 small holders per participating state (KWADP, 2006).
The Kwara State Government through the RTEP engaged and empowered women in the State in cassava production and processing. This was done through the provision of improved cassava cuttings, subsidized cost of input such as fertilizer, insecticide, supply of modern peelers and graters. The Root and Tuber Expansion Programme (RTEP) particularly encouraged rural women farmers to engage in the production and processing of root and tuber crops and also in the marketing of these crops in order to improve their standard of living and in turn alleviate poverty in Kwara State and the nation as a whole (KWADP, 2006).
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Poverty is simply the state of being poor. It is a life situation of having little or no means of survival(Fakoya et al., 2010). For instance, having no food, shelter, clothes, basic health care, education and other means of improving one's life. Poverty alleviation therefore involves improving the living conditions of people who are already poor. (Fakoya et al.,2010). Poverty is one of the developmental problems facing Nigeria particularly Kwara State being prevalent in rural areas where the main occupation is farming (Adekemi et al., 2012). This implies that if farming operations can be improved in the rural areas, poverty will be alleviated to a reasonable extent.
In some states in Nigeria, rural women are gradually taking over the production and processing of root and tuber crops (Afolabi, 2008). However, factors militating against women in their participation in agricultural production are many, some of which are socio- cultural and economic in nature. Also, the population of women in educational, economic, social and political programme is low, and has led to a serious set-back in the economy, thus the need for women empowerment (Safiya,2011).
The existing women-focused development programmes such as Root and Tuber Expansion Programmes aimed at the rural household ought to be assessed and strengthened to achieve greater impact. Hence, the need to evaluate the impact of RTEP on the women's income, productivity and poverty status.This study was therefore conducted with the primary aim of analysing the impact of empowering the women in production and processing on household poverty status. In addressing these problems, this study tried to answer the following questions;
- What are the socio economic characteristics of women cassava farmers and processors in the study area?
- What are the factors that influence the intensity of production of women cassava farmers and processors in the study area?
- What is the impact ofempowering women cassava farmers and processors on their income, productivity and poverty status?
- What are the constraints to women empowerment in the study area?
1.3 Objectives of the study
The main objective of the study was to analyse women empowerment in cassava production and processing as a means of household poverty status in Kwara State. The specific objectives were as follow;
- Describe the socio economic characteristics of cassava women farmers and processors in the study area;
- Determine the factors that influence the intensity of cassava production among farmers and processors in the study area;
- Assess the impact of empowering cassava women farmers and processors on their income, productivity and poverty status; and
- Identify the constraints to women empowerment in the study area.
1.4 Research Hypotheses
- There is no significant difference in the income of participants and non-participants in cassava production and processing.
- There is no significant difference in the productivity ofparticipants and non-participants in cassava production and processing.
- There is no significant difference in the poverty status ofparticipants and non- participants in cassava production and processing.
1.5 Justification for the study
In different parts of the world, rural women as smallholder farmers and landless workers, play a major role in supporting their households and communities in achieving food and nutrition security, generating income, and improving rural livelihoods and overall well- being (IWD, 2012). Women contribute to agriculture and rural enterprises, thereby improving local economies directly and global economies by expansion. They perform most of the unpaid labor in rural areas (IWD, 2012). They are however faced with unrelenting obstacles that limits their contribution to agricultural growth and development. Therefore, empowering women would represent a prudent investment in a nation's development through a fairer system of distribution of wealth and power among people and greater access of women to agricultural inputs. Education and skills acquisition are empowerment tools for poverty alleviation.
If properly acquired, these are capable of increasing agricultural yields, rural income and improved quality of life for rural women and their families.Nevertheless, little work has been done in the study area to assess the impact of women empowerment programmes to household poverty alleviation There was therefore the need to evaluate the impact of RTEP on poverty status of women cassava producers and processors and this study is expected to bridge knowledge gap in the area of empowerment by revealing the current status of poverty which will in turn be useful in formulating relevant policies on women empowerment in the study area.
