Keywords
Improved cowpea
Income and Women Farmers.
How to Cite
Abstract
The study examined the impact of improved cowpea varieties on the income of women farmers in Southern Borno State, Nigeria. Specifically, it aimed at describing the socio-economic characteristics of women cowpea farmers in the study area and identifying the changes in income as a result of using improved cowpea varieties by the respondents. Both primary and secondary data were used for the study. The primary data were collected by use of structured questionnaire administered to 240 participants and 60 non-participants to give a total of 300 respondents who were selected using a random sampling technique. Descriptive statistics and the Double Difference (DD) were the analytical tools used to analyse the data collected. The results showed that the respondents were mostly within the age group of 31-40 years, majority are married (68% participants and 75% non-participants) and a large proportion (38% participants and 35% non-participants) have household size of 6-8 people. An average of 66% participants and 62% non-participants were educated with mean farm sizes of 1.2 and 0.8 hectares respectively. Findings from the Double Difference estimates indicated that the annual income of the participants increased by N143,495.20 ($724.72) which was higher than that of the non-participants which increased by only N58,500.00 ($295.45). This indicates that there was a positive impact on income as a result of using the improved cowpea varieties. It was recommended that policies should be formulated to encourage women farmers in the study area to adopt and sustain the use of improved varieties of cowpea. They should also be given access to adequate extension services and provided with adequate marketing facilities so that the excess produced will not be wasted.
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