Spatial dependence in agricultural employment

The past decade has been one of agro-pessimism. The objective of this study was to investigate the level of participation of males and females in crop farming and examine whether there is any spatial dependence (spill over effect) in the level of participation within geographical locations. Data on employment in crop farming by sex and category of workers was obtained from www.nigerianstat.gov.ng. The simple trend line and multiple bar charts were used for comparative analysis, while Moran's Index, Getis and Ord Statistic were used for spatial analysis. Generally, participation in crop farming is highly dominated by males in the 3 states and the Federal Capital Territory in Nigeria. At less than 1% level of significance the Moran's Index showed high male participation in two states Bauchi and Jigawa, while, female participation was found to be high in Anambra and Ebonyi states. The Getis and Ord Statistic equal 0.08, 0.18 with Z score equal -1.48, 3.07 for male and female farmers respectively. While there is some clustering, the pattern may be due to random chance for male farmers. There was less than 1% likelihood that the clustering of high values could be the result of random chance for female farmers. This suggests employment distribution in crop farming is relatively clustered for male farmers and strongly clustered for female farmers. This study advocates for increased female labour force participation to be addressed as a key component of pro-poor agricultural growth which could translate to higher productivity and poverty reduction in Nigeria.Keywords: Crop Farming, Labor Force Participation, Productivity, Spatial Dependence, Statistic