DETERMINANTS OF WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT IN AGRICULTURE: EVIDENCE FROM RURAL NORTHERN NIGERIA

Abstract

Women’s empowerment is widely recognised as a critical pathway for improving agricultural productivity and rural livelihoods, yet evidence on the drivers of empowerment among women farmers in Nigeria remains limited. This study examines the determinants of women’s empowerment in agriculture among rural farmers in Northern Nigeria using the aggregated individual empowerment index of the Abbreviated Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (A-WEAI). The analysis draws on representative survey data collected under the 2018 Nigeria Baseline and Varietal Monitoring Survey, covering rural households across six northern states and three agro-ecological zones. Descriptive statistics were used to contextualise the socioeconomic characteristics of rural women farmers, while ordinal logistic regression was used to identify the drivers of empowerment. The results reveal substantial heterogeneity in women’s empowerment, with inadequacies in access to productive resources, control over income, and time allocation. Household characteristics, asset ownership, access to infrastructure and markets, and labour availability emerged as significant determinants. The findings underscore persistent structural constraints facing rural women farmers in Northern Nigeria. To overcome this, it advocates for interventions that strengthen women’s ownership of productive resources, reduce time burdens, and enhance intra-household decision-making power as important components of gender-responsive agricultural and rural development policies.