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Gender Roles And Technology Adoption In Rubber Production In Edo State
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Furthermore, the rubber seeds when processed produce oil alkyd resins
used for paints, soap, skin cream and hair shampoo. The rubber seed cake
left as residue after oil is extracted from the seed is also valuable
in compounding livestock feeds (Fasina, 1998). Technology adoption as a
process that begins with awareness of the technology and progresses
through a series of steps that ends in appropriate and effective usage.
Technology users differ widely in their attitudes towards technology and
in their skills, ranging from early adopters who will master even the
most difficult technology through to people who will never adopt.
Technology adoption is important because it is the vehicle that allows
most people to participate in a rapidly changing world where technology
has become central to our lives. The various activities involved in
rubber production are carried out by men, women and youths. Gender
refers to socially assigned roles and behaviours attributable to men and
women (Deji, 2011). In most societies, men and women have distinct
roles with in the farming system. Gender differences in rural farming
households, vary widely across cultures but certain features are common.
Women tend to concentrate their agricultural activities around the
homestead, primarily because of their domestic and reproductive roles.
They play a critical role in food production. Post harvest activities or
livestock care, Akinsanya (2002) suggested that certain activities are
regarded as male or female. In some setting, a rigid division of labor
exists between men and women. Household members have separate income and
expenditure while in another area, division of labor and specialization
of tasks are less rigid and not skewed (Solomon 1995). Historically,
the role and responsibilities of men and women were differentiated to a
large extent in the society. Ekong (2003) concluded that no tasks were
gender specific except child bearing. The colonial influence in Nigeria
in the 50s contributed to initial neglect of women in the agricultural
sector. The extension services at that time emphasized the production of
cash crops that were exported to their countries as industrial
materials and men were found to be predominantly involved. At this
period Olagogun (2001) suggested that men select land first hence, they
select the most productive part leaving women with land that are either
being over used or land that are prone to erosion or degradation, so
invariably, women become victims of unproductive land. This mode of
temporary land acquisition also prevents women from planting permanent
crops like fruits, trees, oil-palm, cocoa, coffee, rubber and other cash
crops. Based on the aforementioned scenario, involvement of men and
women in soil management practices is expected to be different. However,
recently, many Nigerian women are increasable involved in soil
management according to Decjene (2003), due to the fact that both male
and female farmers would like to increase their production and one of
the best ways of doing this is to effectively manage soil using both the
traditional practices such as bush fallowing, mulching, terracing,
addition of manure, crop rotation etc and improved practices such as
fertilizer application, also studies had shown that some of the
constraints facing male and female farmers are gender- specific
according to Abera (2003), Decjene (2003) and world bank (2007). Hence,
the need to assess the roles of arable crop farmers in soil management
practices across gender becomes very imperative with a view to
increasing food production in the study area. Women have been shown to
have minor influence in cropping patterns, they play major roles in
processing and marketing farm products (Dossc Sofa Team (2007), for
rubber crucial, although it is difficult to assess who make the final
decision of when to harvest rubber, responses to previous surveys
indicate that women play role in the decision.
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