IMPACT OF WOMEN IN AGRICULTURE (WIA) TRAINING ON WELFARE STATUS OF RURAL HOUSEHOLDS IN OYO STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study examined the impact of Women-in-Agriculture (WIA) training on welfare status of rural households’ welfare in Oyo State, Nigeria. A multistage sampling procedure was used in selecting 360 respondents disaggregated into 180 trained and 180 untrained women under the Agricultural Development Programme. Well-structured questionnaire was used to collect data. Descriptive Statistics (DS), Endogenous Switching Regression (ESR) and Likert Rating Scale (LRS) were used in analysis. The socioeconomic results for participants and non-participants in WIA training were age (58years and 25years), household size (8 members and 5 members) and income (N54,345.00 and N35,040.00) respectively and training on soya milk and cheese (98.6%) production was scored first among others. Log-likelihood (-542.772; p<0.01) and Wald chi2 (109.64; p<0.01) revealed the appropriateness of ESR model. Participation in WIA training was positively influenced by education (0.0392; p<0.05), household size (0.2278; p<0.05) and extension contact (0.7347; p<0.01) while education (0.0193; p<0.05), number of seasonal training (0.2245; p<0.01) and monthly income (0.1250; p<0.01) increased household’s welfare. Improvement in income of the respondents was scored highest (4.19) among the benefits highlighted. It is suggested that more trainings that are related to boosting the productive efforts of rural women be organized by the stakeholders in agriculture.