Assessment of female engagement in processing low cost or no cost agricultural products for self-reliance in Jigawa State, Niger

This study focuses on Jaya community in Jigawa State, Nigeria. It seeks to identify some agricultural plants, trees and grasses that do not require money or which very little money is needed to purchase with a view to empower rural women towards involvement in processing such products for self-reliance e.g. cassia, tamarind, sesame, moringa, hibiscus sabdriffa, sorghum, groundnuts, neems etc. The population of the study comprised all the women in Jaya community. The population was made up of 79 women. As intact community was used no sample was needed for the study. Simple Percentages, Mean and Standard Deviation were used in analyzing the data. The findings revealed that, rural women could not identify most of the low cost or no cost agricultural plants nor their economic importance. The results showed that none of the women in Jaya Community had participated in any agricultural capacity building. Based on the findings, it was recommended that rural women should be empowered to cater for their children because of their closeness to their mothers and also being the first to suffer most the sufferings of their parents.