Effects of childbearing on rural women agricultural activities in Irepodun Local Government Area of Kwara State, Nigeria

This study was carried out to analyze the effect of child bearing on the activities of the rural women agricultural activities in Irepodun Local Government Area of Kwara State. The study was to determine socio-economic characteristics of childbearing women involved in agricultural activities, identify agricultural activities practised by childbearing women, identify the agricultural activities that are affected by childbearing and determine the effect of childbearing on women farmers’ income. A total of one hundred and twenty respondents were sampled from four randomly selected wards out of the ten wards in the study area. Interview schedule was used to collect data. The study revealed that majority (76.7%) of respondents were between the age of 36-45 years, 80.5% were married and 72.8% were literate and had farming experience above 10 years. Ninety-five percent of the respondents were engaged in agricultural activities as their primary and secondary occupations. The study revealed that most of the agricultural activities practised by the respondents were affected during childbearing. However majority of the respondents (72.0%) were participating in informal saving and credit group, 63.8 % of the respondent contributes below N200 and 36.2% contribute N450 and above. The study revealed that childbearing affects 42.4% of the respondent income while 57.6 % are not affected by childbearing, since respondent has different source of generating income. The hypothesis showed that there is no significant relationship between selected socio economic characteristics of childbearing women and number of activities they are involved in. The study therefore recommends that Women involved in agricultural activities should be given appropriate types of technology to cater for the labour intensive agricultural activities. Childbearing women are encouraged to join or form cooperative society in order to source funds from government, NGOs as well as access credit facilities from financial institutions to boost their involvement in agricultural activities.Keywords: Childbearing, Rural women, Agricultural activities