ABSTRACT 

The study assessed women’s participation in agricultural production activities in the remediated parts of Ogoni-land of Rivers State, Nigeria. The specific objectives of the study were to: describe the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents; examine the type of farming activities the women participate in, identify the factors influencing women participation in farming operations in the remediated Ogoni-land, ascertain women farmers perception of the clean-up and remediation activities; assess the level of access to farm inputs; and ascertain the extent of extension delivery services available to women in the study area. A sample of 400 farmers were randomly selected through a multi-stage random sampling technique. Primary data were collected through the use of a structured questionnaire. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Simple linear as well as Ordinary Least Square Regression analysis and ANOVA were used to test the hypotheses. The result showed that the respondents had a mean age of 44.5 years, 58.25% were Christians. 68.00% belonged to one cooperative organization or the other, and had a mean farming experience of 10.5 years. The women participated to a low extent in all the farming activities with a grand mean score of 1.29. All the factors presented to the respondents influenced their participation in farming activities in Ogoni-land with a grand mean score of 3.93.  The women farmers had negative perception ( = 1.31) about the clean-up and remediation activities, and the level of access to farm inputs was low ( = 1.43), while the extent of extension delivery services available to the women was also low as indicated by a grand mean score of 1.32. The simple linear regression analysis showed that there was a significant relationship between the level of access to farm input and their level of participation in farming activities at 5% level. The OLS regression analysis also showed that significant relationship existed between selected socio-economic characteristics of respondents and women’s level of participation in farming activities at 5% level. Moreover, Analysis of variance (ANOVA) test of significance showed that significant differences existed in the respondents rating between factors influencing respondents’ participation in farming activities across the four Local Government Areas with an F-value of 8.379 at 1% level of significance, thus the null hypothesis was rejected and the alternate accepted. Furthermore, ANOVA test result of non-significance was established in the respondents’ perception of the clean-up and remediated activity across the four Local Government Area with a non-significant F-value of 2.489 at 5% level. The study concluded that the participation of women in all the farming activities in the remediated Ogoni-land was low and that they had low access to farm inputs in the study area. It was, thus, recommended that the women be helped in the form of financial interventions, to move them away from subsistence farming to commercial agriculture in order to improve their livelihoods. Government and other input delivery agencies should also make farming inputs available to these farmers at a subsidized rate, so that they can improve their farming production.