Constraints and Extent of Participation of Rural Women in Turmeric (Curcuma longa L.) Farming in Jaba Local Government Area of Kaduna State

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume IV, Issue VIII, August 2020 | ISSN 2454–6186

Constraints and Extent of Participation of Rural Women in Turmeric (Curcuma longa L.) Farming in Jaba Local Government Area of Kaduna State

Balogun O.S, Owonibi, B .D, Olafemi, S O, and Alabi O, F
Department of Agricultural Extension and Management, Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation, Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria, Afaka, Mando Kaduna

Abstract: The study examined the constraints and extent of participation of rural women in Turmeric (Curcuma longa L.) farming in Jaba Local Government Area of Kaduna State. Primary data was collected through the use of structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and likert type scale were used to analyse the data. The result revealed that the respondents were young with a mean age of about 31years, most 70(70%) of the respondents had a minimum of secondary school education. Women were found to participate highly in most farm activities involved in Turmeric farming except ploughing and chemical application. Fluctuation in price, pest and diseases were important factors that significantly constrained Turmeric farming in the area. The study recommended that the farmers should take advantage of associations and cooperative to bargain for better prices. Also, extension activities should be stepped up to forestall the incidence of pest and diseases.

Key words: Constraints, Extent, Participation, Rural women and Turmeric.

I. INTRODUCTION

Curcuma longa L., commonly known as turmeric, is a tropical perennial monocotyledonous herb belonging to the family Zingiberaceae (Sigrist et al., 2011; Jilani et al., 2012). It is valued for its underground rhizome which contains a yellow coloured phenolic pigment called curcumin which is used as natural colouring agent for food, cosmetics and dye and as an active ingredient in some medicine (Olojede et al., 2009; Singletary, 2010). Turmeric is a cross-pollinated, triploid species, which can be propagated vegetatively using its underground rhizomes (Sasikumar, 2005). Since hybridization is ineffective in most cases, genetic improvement is often limited to germplasm selection and mutation breeding (Ravindran et al., 2007). Evaluation of turmeric cultivars to identify good genotypes suitable for cultivation in different agro-ecologies has been reported. Significant variation in respect to various morphological features and yield components was observed among thirty turmeric germplasm of Bangladesh (Ravindran et al., 2007).

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