Abstract
The study examined the impact of insurgency on the agricultural endeavors of rural women in Adamawa State, Nigeria. Employing a multi-stage sampling approach, 232 rural women actively engaged in agricultural production were selected as participants. Data was gathered through structured questionnaires and supplemented by interview sessions to obtain primary information. The collected data underwent analysis employing both descriptive techniques (mean, percentage, and frequency) and inferential methods (multiple regression and Gini Coefficient).
The findings indicated that the majority (82.8%) of respondents fell within the age range of 26 to 55 years, with an average age of 40 years. Additionally, most respondents (74.6%) were married, and their households had an average size of 7 individuals. These women had an average farming experience of 13 years. The study revealed that a substantial proportion (59.9%) were full-time farmers but faced challenges in accessing credit and extension services. While they had access to improved agricultural inputs like seeds, fertilizer, herbicides, cutlasses, and hoes, the Gini Coefficient result of 0.53 signaled income inequality among the rural women in the study area.
The repercussions of insurgency on the agricultural activities of these rural women encompassed a range of adverse effects. These included forced relocations, fear of violence, loss of arable land, reduced production, fatalities among farmers, decreased economic contribution, loss of stored produce, heightened food insecurity, and diminished crop yields. The rural women identified ignorance, lax borders, poverty, unemployment, and religious prejudice as major factors fueling insurgency in the region.
Regression analysis indicated that factors such as lost farmland, lost livestock, lost assets, relocation, frequency of attacks, displaced people, and exposure to bombings had negative and statistically significant impacts. The primary challenges faced by these farmers were inadequate access to fertilizer, limited credit availability, destruction of farmland, theft of harvested crops, and insufficient access to productive land.
The study’s recommendations include urging governmental bodies, policymakers, and stakeholders to intensify efforts to quell insurgency in the study area to foster agricultural development. Furthermore, it was suggested that federal and state governments, alongside Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and Community-Based Organizations (CBOs), should provide increased support to rural women, who are particularly vulnerable and disproportionately affected by insurgency. This support could manifest as enhanced provision of production inputs to bolster their agricultural endeavors.
Impact of Insurgency on Agricultural Activities of Rural Women Engaged in Crop Farming in Adamawa State, Nigeria,  GET MORE, ACTUARIAL SCIENCE PROJECT TOPICS AND MATERIALS
