LAND TENURE SYSTEM AND SUSTAINABLE LIVELIHOOD AMONG WOMEN CASSAVA FARMERS IN SOUTH WEST, NIGERIA
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Date
2021
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Abstract
The study analyzed the land tenure system and sustainable livelihood among women cassava farmers
in Southwest, Nigeria. The study was carried out in Ogun and Ondo States. The study data obtained
through structured questionnaire and focus group discussion (FDG) were elicited from three hundred
(300) respondents selected across the study areas using the multistage sampling technique. The data
were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings revealed that respondents had a
mean age of 47.4 years, 82% had at least primary school education, 85.3% were married with a mean
household size of 5 persons, mean farming experience was 15.4 years and mean farm size was 1.4ha.
Majority (89.0 %) of the respondents had access to adequate land and 71.3% were not land tenure
secured. The result of Heckman probit model showed that income (p < 0.003), farm size (p < 0.000),
social group (p < 0.068), primary occupation (p < 0.002), number of dependants (p < 0.035) and
proximity to processing industry (p < 0.042) were positively significant to access to land while
household size (p <0.019), access to extension (p < 0.001), cassava output (p < 0.000) and proximity
to market (p < 0.059) were negatively significant. Findings also shows that marital status (p < 0.000),
education status (p < 0.026), access to credit (p < 0.000), access to extension agent (p < 0.001), farming
experience (p < 0.008), farm size (p < 0.010) and proximity to processing industry (p < 0.00) were
positively significant to land security status of respondents. The results of Data Envelopment Analysis
(DEA) indicated that 12.8% of the land secured farmers were technically inefficient with the mean
efficiency of 0.55 apiece for Constant Returns to Scale Technical Efficiency (CRSTE) and scale
efficiency. For the CRSTE and scale efficiency of non-land secured farmers, 3.74% of the interviewed
farmers were both technically and scale efficient with the mean efficiency of 0.38 and 0.39
respectively. Independent sampled t-test revealed that there was a significant difference between the
efficiency and land security status of the women cassava farmers. The result of Multinomial Logit
(MNL) regression model analysis revealed that the coefficients of marital status (p < 0.052), access to
credit (p < 0.013), costs of equipment (p < 0.031), access to extension service (p < 0.061), cassava
output (p < 0.013) and farming experience (p < 0.048) were statistically significant in determining
respondents having two sources of income; coefficients of household size (p < 0.040), and access to
credit (p < 0.0.025) were statistically significant in influencing the probability of adopting three sources
of income while household size (p < 0.073) and access to credit (p < 0.033) were significantly
responsible for the choice of four income sources in the study area. The result of the Ordinary Least
Square (OLS) analysis showed that marital status (p < 0.058), number of extension visits (p < 0.040),
farming experience (p < 0.011), farm size (p < 0.047), labour cost (p < 0.024), transportation (p <
0.028) and belonging to social group (p < 0.040) were statistically significant in affecting the farmers’
income in the study area. The major constraints encountered by cassava farmers were: shortage of land
for cassava production, unsecured land ownership, poor road network, inadequate capital, and
environmental hazards. Poor road network (1st) was considered the most serious problem being
encountered on cassava production and the least (12th) identified constraint was problem of pest and
disease. The study concluded that women cassava farmers had access to adequate land for cultivating
cassava but not many of the respondents were land secured, while the land secured women cassava
farmers have higher production efficiency than the non-land secured category. The study therefore,
recommended that land ownership system in rural areas should be reviewed to encourage more women
access to large cultivable land, and enhance their tenure security towards increased agricultural
production for sustainable livelihood. This study therefore, contributes to the existing body of
knowledge by investigating and providing information on the land tenure system that exist among
women cassava farmers in South Western Nigeria with particular focus on Ogun and Ondo states
exploring their land tenure security status and also assessed their production efficiencies in cassava
farming enterprise. The study is further unique in the choice of analytical tools that were adopted
in the analysis of data collected during the research such as Data Envelopment Analysis, Quantile
Regression Model and Heckman Probit Model. These tools were not found to have been applied
in similar studies conducted earlier.