Gender analysis of constraints to get vegetable production in Ondo State, Nigeria

Vegetable cultivation has become a highly commercialised enterprise, but with a wide gap between current production and potential production. The study therefore assessed the constraints facing vegetable production on gender basis. The study was conducted in the two Ondo State’s ADP agro-ecological zones. A two-stage sampling technique was used as a framework for selecting the respondents. The first stage involved a random selection of ten ADP’s villages from each of the agro-ecological zones while the second stage involved a random selection of six ADP vegetable farmers from each of the selected villages making a total of one hundred and twenty respondents for the study. However, one hundred and seventeen interviewed schedules were suitable for analysis. The findings revealed that majority of the vegetable farmers were found in age group of 30-60 years with a mean age of 46.87 and the mean household size was found to be 6.38 persons per house with low farm size of between 0.25 to 0.50 hectare. Men and women vegetable farmers in Ondo State faced same constraints such non-availability of land, inadequacy of inputs, lack of extension contact, transportation, storage, high cost of input etc but at different degrees. The study concludes that the variations in degrees of constraints between men and women vegetable farmers in Ondo State are due to the differences in roles and responsibilities of each gender along the vegetable production chain. The study therefore recommends that there is a need for gender integration into programme that could enhance the production of vegetables and thus increase the farmers’ income and the general standard of living.