Gender Analysis of Energy Use for Rice Production in North Central, Nigeria

Abstract

The study examined gender analysis of energy use for Rice production in north central Nigeria using a sample of 60 Rice farmers. An analysis of gender relations provides the information on the different conditions men and women face, and the different effects that policies and programs may have on them. Simple descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data. Energy efficiency and energy productivity for Rice production were calculated on per hectare basis using equations from literature. The result revealed that male respondents used 1533.21MJ, 41.55MJ, 1695.79MJ, 4569.6MJ, 616.9MJ, 2439.78MJ and 570.57MJ energy equivalents for seed, labour, fertilizer, herbicide, insecticide, diesel and machine inputs respectively and obtained an energy equivalent of 33539.52MJ per ha. Female respondents on the other hand used 1458.24MJ, 74.48MJ, 1244.21MJ, 7854MJ, 338.3MJ, 1556.97MJ and 609.44MJ of energy for the same inputs, in that respect, and obtained an average energy equivalent of 31087.56MJ per ha. Labour and machinery were the most productive energy inputs for the male respondents while labour and insecticide were the most productive inputs for female respondents. Furthermore, men were more efficient in their use of energy (2.9) but the women provided higher per capita specific energy (6.21MJkg-1) for Rice production process in the study area. The study recommended that government should ensure that adequate supplies and distribution of inputs such as fertilizers, insecticides and herbicides should be done with gender considerations.