Assessment of the role of rural women in small scale fresh fish processing in Katcha local government area, Niger State, Nigeria.

Abstract

The study assessed rural women involvement in small scale fish processing in katcha local government area, Niger State. Structured questionnaire were administered to randomly selected ninety (90) women fresh fish processors in the study area to generate relevant data. The data obtained were analyzed using descriptive statistics and ordinary least square (OLS) regression model. Results revealed that majority (95.56%) of the women were married, most (64.44%) of them have household size of between 6-10 persons. About 65.56% of the women were illiterate. About 63.33% of them received no extension contact. The cost of fresh fish (X6), availability of fresh fish (X8), access to credit (X10) and cooperative membership (X11) significantly influenced small scale fish processing (p<0.01) while other expenses (X7) significantly influenced fish processing (p<0.05). However, the women in the study area were yet to embrace improved methods of fish processing due to inadequate capital, poor access to credit and poor extension service delivery. It was recommended that the women fish processors should be sensitized and encouraged to collect soft loans as members from the cooperative savings, lined to credit institutions, while extension service delivery in the study area should by improved.