Constraints Faced by Women Vegetable Farmers in Kwara State, Nigeria and Its Agricultural Practices

Women are the major vegetable producer in Nigeria. Examining the constraints facing them would reveal area to address for increase vegetable production. This study examines the constraint faced by women vegetable farmers in Kwara State, Nigeria. A total of 210 respondents were selected using a multi-stage random sampling technique. The findings revealed the following constraints facing women in vegetable farming according to their order of severity: availability of water, lack of credit facility, insufficient capital, health status, input supply, Time, adequacy of transport, land availability and market for vegetable. Findings further revealed that majority (83.8%) indicated that the effect of constraints mentioned was reduction in vegetable production. Most (63.8%) of the respondent uses source for information through extension agents. Method of vegetable farming practices was mostly manual. The Pearson moment correlation analysis also revealed significant relationship (p≤0.05) between age and constraints facing women farmers. The study concludes that several constraints are facing women vegetable farmers in the study area. The study recommends the need for vegetable women farmers to come together as a cooperative society. By doing so, they can easily access credit facilities and overcome unstable market price problem. Government and the private sector as well as Non-governmental organizations should construct dams for irrigation of vegetable farms. Government can as well provide for them credit facilities in term of capital that can help these women in providing facilities such as wells or boreholes through their cooperative groups.