ABSTRACT

The study focused onanalyzing women empowerment through production of ginger for household food security in Southern Kaduna. Two Local Government Areas were purposively selected in Southern Kaduna and six villages were randomly selected from these Local Government Area and 224 farmers were selected in this study area. Primary data were collected from 224women ginger farmersthrough the use of random sampling techniques with the aid of structured questionnaire. The statistical tools of analyses used were descriptive statistics, gross margin analysis, Foster Greer Thorbecks Indices; logit regression and t-test. The results shows that (80%) of the women ginger farmers are less than 50 years of age, the majority of the farmers (54%) had one form of formal education or the other. About 58% of the women ginger farmers have household size of 1-5 persons with an average of 5 persons. Majority of the farmers (75%) were not members of a cooperative society. Majority of the farmers (76%) had no access to extension visit. Average farming experience was 19 years, average farm size was 1 hectare and majority of the farmers (92%) financed their production through personal savings. The Gross Income (GI) was ₦182,799.00/ha while the Total Variable Cost was ₦82,649.00/ha. The Gross Margin (GM) was therefore ₦100,150.00/ha. The food security status was determined from the food security line of ₦122,475.30 that was established. Therefore, about 63.4% of the women ginger farmers were food secured, while about 15.2% were moderately food secured and about 21.4% were considered with severe food insecure.The determinants of food security status that was found to be significant were; age, educational level, extension contacts and farm size. These variables were all negative except age which is positive and influence the likelihood of a household being food insecure. Majority of the respondent attested to the fact that inadequate access to inputs (33%), insufficient capital (25%), high cost of labour (23%), poor storage facilities (10%) and shortage of extension visits (5%) were major constraints faced by the women ginger farmers.Based on the findings of this study, it could be concluded that majority of the farming households (63.4%) were found to be food secure and age, education, having access to extension visitand farm size improves the food security status of farming households. The study revealed that food insecurity status decreases with increase in extension services and education. Therefore, the agricultural development programme is advised to stimulate their extension staff through motivation to give the rural farmers the best needed assistance and innovation in ginger production.