The Role of Women in Agricultural Development in Nigeria Introduction The position of agricultural women in developing countries, such as Nigeria, is very important for economic development. Women are major source of labor in the agricultural sector of Nigeria and their economic performance influences the performance of the whole economy. However, the economic performance of agricultural women in Nigeria is characterized by low efficiency, deteriorating agricultural practices, and very low productivity. Such poor performance is due to unequal socio-cultural, political, religious, and economic position of the women. Inability for women to get access to credits, land, education, justice and other productive resources puts more burden on them, leading to the state of complete inefficiency and a situation where their labor is exploited. In Bangladesh, quite opposite is the situation of women and their role in the economy. Based on comparison of women’s status in Nigeria and Bangladesh (where women have been more empowered), this research paper will point out how much the importance of empowerment of agricultural women is in the agricultural transformation, rural development, and the economy as a whole.Comment by user: How do you know that? Citation from your studies? Your intro is incomplete without telling what is your objective and how would you organize your rest of the paper? Literature Review All data used in this research paper are reliable data from prominent scholar articles. During the research for the topic of this research paper, most of the sources were elaboration of quantitative data about agricultural women in Nigeria. This was convenient for the purpose of the research paper, specifically for the better analysis of position on women in agricultural sector of Nigeria. List of all used resources is presented under the section “References” at the bottom of the paper. Comment by user: That is not the part of the literature review.Comment by shu rui: Methodology All collected data in this research paper is qualitative data, based on the research done by prominent organizations and individuals whose work is considered reliable in their area of expertise. The topic of the research paper is best explained through the structural representation of factors that are crucial for the importance of agricultural women in Nigeria to rural development. First structural part of this research paper consists of theoretical explanations of basic concepts of agricultural transformation, rural development, subsistence farming etc. with explanations of specific models of developing countries with agricultural development. Then, an explanation of basic characteristics of agricultural sector in Nigeria is necessary for the reader to understand the circumstantial attributes of social environment in which agricultural women in Nigeria live. Furthermore, socio-cultural and economic position of agricultural women in Nigeria will be analyzed. Through .

1. The Role of Women in Agricultural Development in Nigeria
Introduction
The position of agricultural women in developing countries,
such as Nigeria, is very important for economic development.
Women are major source of labor in the agricultural sector of
Nigeria and their economic performance influences the
performance of the whole economy. However, the economic
performance of agricultural women in Nigeria is characterized
by low efficiency, deteriorating agricultural practices, and very
low productivity. Such poor performance is due to unequal
socio-cultural, political, religious, and economic position of the
women. Inability for women to get access to credits, land,
education, justice and other productive resources puts more
burden on them, leading to the state of complete inefficiency
and a situation where their labor is exploited. In Bangladesh,
quite opposite is the situation of women and their role in the
economy. Based on comparison of women’s status in Nigeria
and Bangladesh (where women have been more empowered),
this research paper will point out how much the importance of
empowerment of agricultural women is in the agricultural
transformation, rural development, and the economy as a
whole.Comment by user: How do you know that? Citation from
your studies? Your intro is incomplete without telling what is
your objective and how would you organize your rest of the
paper?
Literature Review
All data used in this research paper are reliable data from
prominent scholar articles. During the research for the topic of
this research paper, most of the sources were elaboration of
quantitative data about agricultural women in Nigeria. This was

2. convenient for the purpose of the research paper, specifically
for the better analysis of position on women in agricultural
sector of Nigeria. List of all used resources is presented under
the section “References” at the bottom of the paper. Comment
by user: That is not the part of the literature review.Comment
by shu rui:
Methodology
All collected data in this research paper is qualitative data,
based on the research done by prominent organizations and
individuals whose work is considered reliable in their area of
expertise. The topic of the research paper is best explained
through the structural representation of factors that are crucial
for the importance of agricultural women in Nigeria to rural
development. First structural part of this research paper consists
of theoretical explanations of basic concepts of agricultural
transformation, rural development, subsistence farming etc.
with explanations of specific models of developing countries
with agricultural development. Then, an explanation of basic
characteristics of agricultural sector in Nigeria is necessary for
the reader to understand the circumstantial attributes of social
environment in which agricultural women in Nigeria live.
Furthermore, socio-cultural and economic position of
agricultural women in Nigeria will be analyzed. Through such
analysis, the goal of the paper is to represent factors that
influence loss of productivity of women as well as to offer
possible solution to the problem. Lastly, analysis of Bangladesh
and its successful case of women empowerment should be
considered as a potential solution to the problem of agricultural
women in Nigeria. Comment by user: Before you sated your
data, you need to tell about the method or approach of your
paper.
Agricultural Transformation and Rural Development
In order to understand the importance of empowerment of
agricultural women in agricultural transformation and rural
development, the latter concepts have to be defined.

3. Agricultural transformation and rural development are important
processes of the economic development of developing countries.
Successful agricultural transformation and rural development of
developing countries require a set of necessary pre-conditions
and efficient employment of all available resources that a
developing country has. One of those resources that is not
efficiently empowered, mostly suppressed and put on the
margins of economic wealth distribution in developing countries
is women. They play an important role, an economic ‘trigger’,
whose empowerment can lead to a more efficient rural
development.
Integrated rural development takes into consideration a “broad
spectrum of rural development activities, including small-
farmer agricultural progress, the provision of physical and
social infrastructure, the development of rural nonfarm
industries, and the capacity of the rural sector to sustain and
accelerate the pace of these improvements over time” (Todaro &
Smith, 2011, p.419). Agricultural transformation is “the process
by which individual farms shift from highly diversified,
subsistence-oriented production towards more specialized
production oriented towards the market or other systems of
exchange (Todaro & Smith, 2011, p.422). Thus, agricultural
transformation represents the initial step of integrated rural
development that is necessary, but not sufficient for the whole
development of rural area to occur. Integrated rural
development goes beyond agricultural transformation in terms
of modernization of rural areas, developing strong institutions,
social services, Medicare, building an infrastructure etc.
The economic science lists three categories of developing
countries based on their agricultural characteristics: 1)
agriculture based countries (“agriculture is still a major source
of economic growth” (Todaro & Smith, 2011, p.425) such as
sub-Saharan Africa; 2) transforming countries (“where the share
of poor who is very high” (Todaro & Smith, 2011, p.426) such
as South and East Asia, North Africa, Middle East and
Guatemala; 3) urbanized countries such as: most of Latin

4. America and the Caribbean. This research paper is going to
focus only on sub-Sahara African model of agricultural
development with emphasizes on the role of women in
agricultural transformation and rural development in Nigeria.
Characteristics of Agricultural Sector in Nigeria
Nigeria is a developing country with subsistence farming.
Subsistence farming is “farming in which crop production, stock
rearing, and other activities are conducted mainly for personal
consumption” (Todaro & Smith, 2011,p.434). Structural
characteristics of agriculture of Nigeria are determined by the
subsistence farming with traditional techniques, a lack of
investment, shifting cultivation, and labor scarcity during the
peak agricultural seasons. “The agricultural sector has not been
able to fulfill its traditional role of feeding the population,
meeting the raw material needs of industries, and providing
substantial surplus for export.” (Apata, 2011, p.2). Furthermore,
contribution of the agricultural sector to GDP “has fallen over
the decades” (Apata, 2011, p.2). Primary reason for such
decrease is a ”result of low productivity, owing to the
dominance of subsistence farmers and their reliance on
rudimentary farm equipment and low technology” (Apata, 2011,
p.3). Also, “95.77% of farms in Nigeria are classified as small
scale-farms, while the remaining 4.23% are medium-scale
farms” (Apata, 2011, p.4). Hence, the major problem of
agricultural sector in Nigeria is its low productivity that cannot
sustain steady growth of rural areas.
Socio-cultural Position of Agricultural Women in Nigeria
Low productivity of agricultural sector in Nigeria can be
improved by empowerment of women and their more equal
integration into society. Nigeria is a country of high gender
inequalities. Based on United Nations Development Program
Report for Nigeria, the major causes of gender inequality are
“socio-cultural and religious practices and patriarchy” (UNDP
Report Nigeria, 2009 p.54). Among those practices are practices
that completely undermine and discriminate human rights of

5. Nigerian women. In the northern part of Nigeria, “stoning to
death and amputation of women are enforced by law that was
introduced in 1999/2000 by Islamic leaders” (Weimann, 2010,
p.3). For instance, the most recent case was the case of stoning
to death of Moslem women named Safiya because of committing
adultery, “while the man she claimed was responsible for the
pregnancy was set free” (Weimann, 2010, p5). Furthermore,
severe and inhuman traditional practices directly diminish the
role of women in the society. Some, among many, traditional
practices include: “female genital mutilation (to control
women’s sexuality) and marriage as the only acceptable status
for a woman” (UNDP Report Nigeria, 2009 p.55). Furthermore,
child marriage is widely spread throughout the society as a
“reflection of society’s emphasis on the ‘virtue’ of virginity for
women at marriage, in which little girls are married to much
older men” (UNDP Report Nigeria, 2009 p.55). Consequently,
those married children do not have any rights. Polygamy is
another very wide spread traditional practice in the whole
country that leaves a serious psychological consequences on
women in the form of trauma, mental disorders and distress.
“Wife beating is accepted in Nigerian culture as a legitimate
instrument of authority of the husband,” (UNDP Report Nigeria,
2009 p.55) while sexual violence, including rape is not a rare
occasion. “Chauvinistic tendencies of male rulers over the years
have denied women any meaningful participation in politics”(
UNDP Report Nigeria, 2009 p.55). Women represent only 7.7%
of National Assembly, estimated in 2007.
Economic Position of Agricultural Women in Nigeria
According to the research done by S.A. Rahman, that was
published in “Journal of Gender Studies,” it is clear that women
role in agricultural sector in Nigeria cannot be ignored from the
perspective of rural development. Thus, “women in Nigeria
form over half of the rural population and 54% of all women
over the age of 15 years in rural areas are economically active,
while 70.3% are engaged in agriculture” (Rahman, 2008, p.19).

6. This means that quantitative potential of women in agricultural
sector is immense, while unused economic potential of such
quantitative force of women in agriculture can be considered as
a wasted opportunity cost. As far as food processing is
concerned, Nigerian women tend to spend more time in food
processing then men. Furthermore, “in many parts of Nigeria,
women exclusively handle farm produce processing activities
like threshing, winnowing, grinding, pounding, smoking, salting
and drying among others” (Rahman, 2008, p.19). Thus, it
clearly emphasizes that women are handling major managerial
activities within the agricultural production.
Agricultural women in Nigeria work more than man. “The high
labor input by women most often involves manual labor for
farm, household and non-farm activities” (Rahman, 2008, p.19).
It was estimated that in general, women in Sub-Saharan Africa
provide “60%-80% percent of agricultural labor” (Todaro &
Smith, 2011, p.437). Women’s work in agricultural society that
dominates Nigeria involves responsibilities such as “all
subsequent operations, including removing and burning felled
trees, sowing or planting the plot, weeding, harvesting, and
preparing the crop for storage or immediate consumption”
(Todaro & Smith, 2011 p.436). Despite the fact that women
contribution to agricultural production is greater than men’s,
their work is “invisible.” Reason for that is the fact that women
are not paid anything for their work. Distribution of labor
outputs in most cases completely belongs to man, and he is the
one who is deciding how the agricultural output and income is
going to be distributed.
Despite the fact that women are overwhelmed by work on the
farm and in agricultural processes, they also bear all the
responsibilities of household. “Apart from their contribution to
agricultural production, women spend four hours per day
fetching firewood and water” (Dionco & Adetayo, 2000, p.91).
Furthermore, adding all the rest of responsibilities including
house work (cleaning, cooking etc.) and taking care of the
children, upon previously mentioned responsibilities, it is

7. obvious that women in Nigeria experience over exploitation of
their labor capacities. Consequently, the amount of work and
responsibilities they have, directly diminish their work
efficiency. Women reached the point where their “labor
utilization cannot be expected to increase any further; they are
experiencing time-poverty and the need for a trade-off between
activities” (Rahman, 2008, p.20). All these circumstances are
contributing to a greater decrease in women’s productivity,
which further decreases the productivity in the whole
agricultural sector. The logic is simple, if the majority of
workers (in our case, agricultural women) experience the loss of
productivity, then the whole sector is experiencing the loss of
productivity. Thus, agricultural transformation and integrated
rural development can neither be sustained nor possible.
State of socio-cultural, political, religious and economic
position of agricultural women in Nigeria clearly emphasizes
women’s inequality in society in comparison to men.
Consequences of those inequalities are immense. Perceived
purely from economic perspective, consequences are expressed
as an economic loss to the society as a whole, and thus to
economic development. Hence, agricultural women in Nigeria
are segregated from major economic opportunities such as:
access to credits, access to land and inputs, access to education
and access to justice.
The most important factor for an increase in productivity of
agricultural women in Nigeria is their accessibility to available
economic resources. Two most important economic resources
are access to credit and access to land. Access to credit for
agricultural women in Nigeria is very limited. Based on the
annual report of United Nations Development Program, “in the
area of finance such as bank loans, micro-credits, grants and
cooperative loans, men have greater access” (UNDP Report
Nigeria, 2009 p.56). The same situation is with the access to
land facilities and ownership rights. Limitations to access to
productive resources for women are caused by the fact that
“women do not control a lot of money in the households

8. because of superior financial status of men” (Rahman, 2008,
p.22). For instance, study done by Journal of Gender Equalities
has estimated that accessibility of agricultural women to
productive resources in Nigeria is 11.25% out of total
population of agricultural women. As far as access to
agricultural land and inputs is concerned, the situation is not
different. Traditionally, men in Nigeria have greater access to
agricultural land based on inheritance rights and cultural
preferences of the owners of land to transmit the land to men.
Statistical data shows that “62 per cent of men and only 36 per
cent of women have access to farmland” (UNDP Report Nigeria,
2009 p.57).
Failure by the government and society to provide access to
credits and land to agricultural women further deteriorates
efficiency of their labor while opportunity cost for agricultural
sector increases. “When credits and resources are unavailable,
reducing the variability of household earnings generally entails
choosing less efficient methods of production, and thus lower
average income” (Todaro & Smith, 2011, p.438). Situation
forces women to use old, inefficient and time consuming
agricultural tools, whose usage and result of work cannot even
provide efficient daily intake of food for household members.
Women’s access to education and justice follow the same
pattern. “Although, the Nigerian Constitution provides for equal
and adequate educational opportunities at all levels without
discrimination, women’s enrolment has continued to be lower
than man’s enrolment at all three levels of education (primary,
secondary, tertiary)” (UNDP Report Nigeria, 2009 p.57). “Legal
and social institutions have continued to widen the disparity
between Nigerian men and women by keeping women in a
subordinate position” (UNDP Report Nigeria, 2009 p.57).
Clearly, economic position of agricultural women in Nigeria is
alarming and needs improvement. Process of rural development
experience big loss in terms of opportunity costs derived from
the loss of efficiency and productivity of agricultural women.
However, practical solutions to the problem exist.

9. Successful Case of Bangladesh
Solution
to the issue of productivity of agricultural women in Nigeria
requires structural change of society from its core. Traditional
values and the model of patriarchy with zealot religious
doctrine and practices have to be abandoned completely.
Nigerian Government has to increase its role in protecting rights
of women by providing a strong network of NGOs.
Successful case of Bangladesh is the best possible solution to
the problem of productivity and equality of agricultural women
in Nigeria. Nigeria needs to develop its strategy of women
empowerment based on: BRAC programs and Grameen Bank
Project.
“BRAC, previously known as Bangladesh Rural Advancement
Committee and now as Building Resources across Countries, is
an extraordinary NGO whose mission is poverty reduction”
(Todaro & Smith, 2011, p.554) based on women empowerment.
After the famine that struck Bangladesh in 1970’s, the major
goal of BRAC was to prevent any more deaths caused by
poverty and famine. BRAC originally “operated in the rural
areas of Bangladesh, focusing on poverty reduction through

10. empowerment of agricultural women” (Timothy & Adeoti, 2006,
p.431). It managed to empower poor agricultural women
through “high-impact and widely emulated programs of
innovations in education, nutrition, health, credit, legal rights,
advocacy and other fields” (Todaro & Smith, 2011, p.554).
Furthermore, it also managed to develop and successfully
implement strategies for education and health care for the poor,
mostly agricultural women. Educational strategies are based on
“establishing highly innovative village non-formal primary
schools where literacy and numeracy, health and hygiene, basic
science and social studies were taught” (Todaro & Smith, 2011,
p.556). Village women that were previously trained by BRAC
professionals were employed in those schools. This type of
strategy directly improves social and economic position of
agricultural women by providing employment for women them.
Also, this type of strategy increases women’s participation in
society, their agricultural skills and rights. Besides its successes
in reduction of poverty and women empowerment, it is
estimated that BRAC had a major impact on reduction in
corruption, Government inefficiency, increase in equal
distribution of resources etc. The fact that the model is also
developing in Sri Lanka, Uganda, southern Sudan, Tanzania,
Pakistan, Sierra Leone, and Liberia shows that the success of
BRAC is a universal formula for an increase in productivity and
efficiency of agricultural women that boosts up both rural and

11. economic development of a country.
Another solution is to provide agricultural women access to
credit. Grameen Bank project represents the best model for such
policy. Grameen Bank Project was developed by a brilliant
professor Muhammad Yunus, who formed a
“microfinance organization and community development bank
in Bangladesh that makes small loans (known as microcredit or
"grameen-credit") to the impoverished agricultural women,
without requiring collateral.” (Develtere & Huybrechts, 2005,
p.165). The idea behind the project was to offer micro credits to
agricultural women so they can start their small business and
stop being dependent upon husband’s income. Using the same
model, agricultural women in Nigeria can abandon the circle of
poverty, increase their productivity and trigger the agricultural
transformation and integrated rural development.
Conclusion
Position of agricultural women in Nigeria has to be changed. If
Nigeria wants to achieve sustainable economic development, it
will have to improve the rights of agricultural women and
integrate them into social, political and above all economic
aspect of society. Loss of efficiency and productivity in
agricultural sector, due to unequal role of women in the society,
will not be possible to recover as long as agricultural women
are not offered equal economic opportunities and access to
productive resources such as credits, loans, land, property,

12. education etc. Nigeria has a long way to go, until it reaches the
state of self sustainable economic development. The question is
not if it is possible to succeed, the question is if Nigerian
people are going to understand the economic importance of
women whose empowerment means better life, both for
oppressed and oppressors.
References
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Develtere, P., & Huybrechts, A. (2005). The Impact of
Microcredit on the Poor in
Bangladesh. Alternatives: Global, Local, Political, 30(2), 165-
189.
Rahman, S. A. (2008). Women's involvement in agriculture in

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Timothy, A, & Adeoti, A. I. (2006). Gender Inequalities and
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