Rural women and Agricultural Production in Imo State South-Eastern Nigeria : Problems and Prospects

The discourse on women in agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa has shifted in recent times from call for recognition to a quest for pragmatic action that will help the resource poor rural women improve their productive capacity. Given their enormous involvement in farming over the years, one would expect that by now African rural areas would have achieved optimum productivity and food security. But they are underperforming in part due to multiple institutional and cultural impediments which limit their access to productive resources and reduce their productivity. Viewed against this background, this work is an exploratory research which seeks to examine the roles, problems and prospects of rural women in agricultural production in Imo State South-eastern Nigeria. The author opines that in order to improve agricultural production among rural women in Imo state urgent actions should be taken by government and policy makers to make and implement women centric policies in the area of education, land use, rural banking, extension services and health care