Gender Resource Acquisition And Use in Cocoa Production In Ondo State, Nigeria

The relevance of this study stemsfrom the need to investigate whether there are gender differences in the management efficiency offarms at different levels offarmproduction andtofindout howfarm inputs such as land, labour andcredit are acquired, controlled and allocated to both sexes? This paper appraises resource acquisition and use between gender in cocoa production in Ondo State. The study was conducted in four purposively chosen local government areas, each locatedin one of thefour agricultural zones in Ondo State: Owo Local Government Areafrom Owo/Akoko Zone. Ondo West Local Government Areafrom Ondo/Odigbo Zone, Okitipupa Local Government Area Okitipupa/Irele Zone, Akure North Local Government from Akure/lfedore/Idanre Zone, These areas are recognized as major agricultural production centres in the State. Also their population represents a socio-economic and cultural cross section of the major ethnic groups in the State. Also their population represents a socio-economic and cultural cross section of the major ethnic groups in the state. A multi-stage stratified random sampling technique was used. First the chosen local government area were zoned according to their village listing. In each local government area, a village was selected at random. A total of three hundred (300) Randomly Selectedfarmers distributed into seventy five (75) male andfemale respondentsfor each local government area were studied. A structuredititerview schedule was used to collect informationfrom a total of one hundred andfifty (150) male, and one hundred andfifty (150)femalefarmers respectively. Data collectedfrom the field were analyzed using descriptive statistics to describe the socio-economic characteristics of thefarmers andproductionfunction to determine their technical efficiencies. The results revealed that the average age ofthe malefarmers is 51years while that of thefemalefarmers is 39 years. However, most ofthe farmers both male andfemalefall within the age bracket of36 to 65 years. About 36percent and51percent of male andfemale farmers respectively have cocoa farming as their major occupation. Most full time farmers are female farmers while majority of thepart timefarmers are malefarmers. The average age ofmalefarming experience was 22 years while that of women was 16 years. On the resource usepattern, most of thefarm labour used by both male and female farmers were family labour. Farmers tended to employ their opposite sex when they were to pay for farm labour. Thus gender issues were not generally considered in assigning either male or female farmers particular agricultural tasks. While most males acquired their farmland through inheritance and lease, majority of the women farmers acquired theirfarmlandsfrom their husbands andthrough lease agreement. With respect tofarm credit, unlike the women, the male farmers acquired significant proportion of their farm credit from public credit institutions probably because they own and could offer collateral securities usually required by these financial institutions. The major source of women credit is informal credit institutions. The average products of all farm inputs used by the farmers except male hired labour and expenditure onfertilizer were higherfor malefarmers thanforfemalefarmers. Similarly, the values of the Marginal Physical Product (MPP) ofall the resources used exceptfemale hiredlabour and expenditure onfertilizer were significantly higherfor malefarmers thanfemalefarmers. Thus malefarmers are more technically efficient thanfemalefarmers.