Extent of Involvement of Women in Dairy Farming Activities in Oyo State, Nigeria

The study was conducted to evaluate extent of involvement of women in dairy production in Oyo state. Two stage sampling procedure was used for the study with 112 questionnaires administered through a scheduled interview to obtain information from the respondents. Data were collected on socio-economic characteristics, dairy production enterprise of the respondents and their extent of involvement in dairy production activities. Data collected were subjected to descriptive statistics and regression analysis. The result of the study showed that most of the respondents were older than 25 years; they were Muslims, married, had no formal education and had 5-7 members as household size. The study further revealed that women were more involved in marketing activities (93.2%) and processing activities (92.4%) while they had low involvement in daily management activities and health activities of dairy cattle. The overall involvement index of the respondents show that most (91.1%) of the respondents had high involvement in dairy production activities. Based on the result of the study, it was concluded that most of the respondents were highly involved in processing and marketing of dairy products; they were not involved in daily management and health activities of dairy cattle. It was further concluded that the overall involvement index of the respondents was high in dairy production enterprise. Income and secondary occupation were significant factors influencing extent of involvement in dairy production enterprise.