ASSESSMENT OF WOMEN PARTICIPATION IN PROCESSING AND MARKETING OF POULTRY
PRODUCTS IN RIVERS STATE, NIGERIA

1ODINWA, A. B.,
2AMUGO, N. M.,
3EKEOGU, C. O., & 4AKUGBO, M
1&4

1. Department of Agricultural Education, Federal College of Education (Technical), Omoku,
2. Department of Agricultural Technology, Captain Elechi Amadi Polytechnic, Port Harcourt,
3. Department of Agriculture, Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Port Harcourt,
Rivers State, Nigeria
Corresponding Email: benodinwa@gmail.com

Abstract
The study assessed women participation in processing and marketing of poultry products in Rivers State, Nigeria. Three
specific objectives and three hypotheses were stated to guide the study. A simple random sampling technique was used to
select 3 Local Government Areas (LGA), 18 communities and 108 women for the study. Descriptive statistics such as percentage and weighted mean scores were used to analyze the data. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to test the
hypotheses. The findings indicated that women participation in processing of poultry products in the study area was low.
Although, the result showed that women in Ikwerre LGA participated in processing of poultry products more than the other
two LGAs and followed by Oyigbo LGA. The result showed that: Marketing of chicken , marketing of life birds , selling of parts of chicken and marketing of eggs were the aspects of marketing of poultry products that women in the three LGAs participated highly. Finally, the result showed that: insecurity challenges, price fluctuation of poultry products and inadequate credits among others, posed severe challenges to women participation in processing and marketing of poultry products in Rivers State. The study therefore recommended among others that: Women in Rivers State should not limit themselves to only marketing of poultry products, but should diversify to production, processing and supply of livestock feeds and equipment for more income; and Agricultural credits should be made accessible to women in livestock enterprises by the State Government.