Gender decomposition in smallholder agricultural performance in rural Nigeria

Abstract Although women are actively involved in a wide array of agricultural production activities, they have limited access to farm productive resources and their influence in decision-making is also restricted compared with men. These limitations have the potential to affect women performance in agriculture. This study assesses gender-based farm performance (proxy by productivity) differences and identified sources of performance differentials amongst rice farmers in rural Nigeria using the Blinder-Oaxaca gender decomposition framework. The results revealed a disparity between men and women with a gender performance gap of about 11% in favour of men, of which 77.66% of the gap remained unexplained after accounting for gender differences in household characteristics, access to supply-driven factors, and farm productive resources. A more detailed analysis suggests that factors such as the use of improved rice varieties, membership of farmer-based organisations, extension services, and quantity of seeds sown could contribute to the gender performance gap. As a result, the study concludes that focusing on these productivity gaps and the factors that contribute to them is critical for developing policy interventions aimed at empowering women.