ABSTRACT

The study investigated small scale livestock production for improved household livelihood among rural women in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. Specifically the study described the socio-economic characteristics of respondents in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria; ascertained livestock enterprise characteristics of the respondents and assessed livelihood status of members of households engaged in livestock production; ascertained contributions of livestock production to livelihood and identified constraints faced by the women in livestock production in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. The study population comprises of all rural women who kept livestock at small scale in Akwa Ibom State. Purposive, multistage, random sampling techniques were employed in selecting a sample size of 240 respondents, while structured interview schedule organized in sections according to specific objectives was employed in data collection. Statistical tools such as frequency counts, percentages, mean rating, Pearson product moment correlation and multiple regression were adopted in data analysis. The findings show that majority (54.2%) of the respondents were married, while 55.8 percent of them were within the age ranges of 41-60 years, and about 37.5% of the respondents had at least primary education attainment with about 51.3% of them having livestock farming as their primary occupation. On livestock enterprise characteristics, majority (63.1%) raised goat under extensive system. Under livelihood status, the results, showed that about 33.6% and 32.5% of the respondents had an acceptable livelihood of expenditure and food consumption scores indices respectively. Results also show that major contributions of livestock production to rural women households were direct access to milk, egg and meat (= 3.34), provision of cash from sales of livestock and livestock products (=3.31), improved family nutrition ( = 3.08), and help to offset debt that required urgent attention (= 3.07). Major constraints faced by the women were problems of theft and road accidents ( = 2.87), inadequate decision making in livestock production (= 76) and multiple roles including domestic chore (= 71). Results of hypothesis 1 showed a weak significant correlation between livestock production and expenditure on food consumption. Test of hypothesis 2 revealed that feed (0.341**) had a positive coefficient, while labour (-0.217**) and drug (-0.249**) were negatively significant. In conclusion, small scale livestock production has improved the livelihood of households of rural women in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria, but is being constrained by several factors which need to be addressed to ensure sustainable livelihood improvement of the rural women. The study recommended improve ownership of livestock production assets among rural women, improved decision making abilities in livestock production among rural women, availability of improve livestock production information to the women, provision of training needs under livestock enterprise performance with women involvement and encouragement of women embrace of innovations, income generation and living standards as well as improve government support to extension services.