Farm economic efficiency gap due to gender discrimination-evidence from USAID markets II Programme participating small-scale farmers in Kano state of Nigeria. EFarm economic efficiency gap due to gender discrimination-evidence from USAID markets II Programme participating small-scale farmers in Kano state of Nigeria.

Abstract

The research empirically isolate the impact of gender discrimination on the farm economic efficiency gap between the women and men farmers participating in USAID MARKETS II programme in Nigeria’s Kano State. Using an easy cost-route approach, a structured questionnaire complemented with an interview schedule was used to draw a cross-sectional data from 189 beneficiaries selected through a multi-stage sampling technique. The collected data were subjected to both descriptive and inferential statistics. From the empirical evidences, it was established that gender differential has both effect and impact on the farm economic efficiency of the women farmers, thus make them to be at disadvantage compared to their men counterpart. Besides, the extension gap which affected the farm economic efficiency of the women farmers against the men gender owes to gender stereotype. Further, in isolating the impact of gender differential, it was observed that efficiency gaps of technical and cost efficiencies between the two genders owe majorly to gender discrimination. Besides, both gender discrimination and endowment factor had equal contribution to the yield gap between the two groups. However, profit efficiency gap between the genders owes majorly to endowment effect. Generally, it can be inferred that the active participation of the women beneficiaries in the programme is slowdown by gender discrimination viz. gender inequality and gender stereotype, thus inhibited their farm business going concern. Therefore, for the programme sustainability, the programme should include gender budget in their plan so as to enable the women gender break the jinx of gender inequality- poor access and control over productive resources.