According to the latest poverty reports, 46 percent of the country can be classified as poor and the poverty incidence is highest in the agricultural sector (Phillip et al, 2009).

Like many other countries in Africa, women in Nigeria have broadened and deepened their involvement in agricultural production in recent decades (WDR, 2008). Although men dominate the sector in Nigeria, a large share of women also participates across the agriculture value chain; as they are involved in production, processing, and sales. Overall, 48 percent of female headed households participate in the agriculture sector and, in the rural areas; almost 70 percent of female headed households are involved in the sector<sup>2</sup> . While there is debate in the general literature on gender and agricultural productivity as to the contribution of the differential use of inputs in explaining productivity gaps, it is certainly true across a range of countries that women tend to have lower levels of usage of various productive assets (see for example Croppenstedt et. al. 2013). This is also true in the case of Nigeria. Despite their significant role in agricultural production, earlier work on Nigeria has shown that women have relatively limited access to agriculture land and lower levels of inputs and use of extension services compared with men (Phillip et al., 2009).

Taken together, these constraints could limit women’s productivity relative to men. For instance, lower access to credit is thought to impact women’s ability to engage in more productive irrigation farming, as this requires more expensive equipment and labor (Porter and PhilipsHoward, 1997). In addition, women’s lower levels of agency and decision-making power may negatively impact their ability to benefit from their activities in the agriculture sector, as well as in other areas of their lives.<sup>3</sup> To assess these gender differences, this paper uses data from the General Household SurveyPanel (GHS-Panel) conducted in 2010/11 by the Nigeria National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in collaboration with the World Bank Living Standard Measurement Study (LSMS) team. The GHS-Panel survey is modeled after common LSMS surveys and is representative at the national, zonal and rural/urban levels. The total sample is made up of about 5,000 households, out of which about 3,000 are agricultural households, covering all thirty-six states in the country and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

One of the main objectives of the GHS-Panel is to improve agriculture data collection in Nigeria by collecting information at disaggregated levels, including at the crop, plot, and household levels. Households were visited at two points in time; right after planting (post-planting visit) and right after harvest (post-harvest visit). During the visits, information was gathered on the household demographic structure, education, labor, assets, and farm and nonfarm income generating activities. One of the advantages of the agriculture modules in the survey is that they allow us to identify the manager of each individual plot farmed by the household. When combined with the demographic and other types of information in the household modules, we are able to determine the gender and socio-economic characteristics of each manager instead of

> 2 These figures are from the GHS-Panel survey 2010/11 implemented by the NBS

> 3 See Ani (2003) and Damisa and Yohanna (2007) for analysis on effect of decision making on agricultural activity in Nigeria.

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