Women, Socio-cultural factors, and Agricultural development in Gombe

Rising hunger and food crises are among today's major threats to human survival and well-being globally. This situation has been a source of worry to governments, development experts and researchers. In the struggle to win this "war of the belly" attention has been directed to rural communities where more than 80% of world's food are produced. Rural women has been found to be the catalyst in the fight against hunger. In spite of their roles in agricultural development, several factors pose serious challenges to the success of these women as food producers. Lack of access to land was one of the major challenge women faced in agricultural development. Though there are cultural restrictions, the respondents rather identified inadequate availability of improved seeds and fertilizer, access to credit and improved extension services as inhibiting women's participation in agricultural development. This work addresses this core issues and suggest ways of solving them and should be useful to women in the rural areas as well as educating the men on the economic importance of women's participation in agricultural development.