An Investigation into the Determinants of Women Farm Labour Participation in Mezam Division, NorthWest Region- Cameroon

Abstract

Considering the importance women play in farm production, this paper seeks to investigate the determinants of women farm labour participation by large and by agricultural training in Mezam, Cameroon. Data was collected from 398 farmers using a structured questionnaire and was analyzed using descriptive statistics and Binary logistic regression. On average 70.1% of women were into farm labour participation and 29.4% received agricultural professional training. The mean number of women into farm labor participation is further revealed to be higher for those with training than those with no training. The logistic regression results indicate that marital status, land ownership, farm experience, agricultural training and land size all have a significant and positively associated with women farm labour participation while Household size exhibits a significant but negatively associated participation. Education, crop production, financial status and access to credit are all insignificant. When decomposed by agricultural training, household size, crop production, access to credit and land ownership are positive and significant in influencing the likelihood of women farm labour participation. This finding concludes that, improvements in agricultural training, credit facilities and women access to land can significantly improve women farm labour participation and may contribute positively to farm production Mezam Divison. It is recommended that land reforms and laws should be in favour of female farmers to increase their access and ownership of land and female-agricultural training should be augmented.