Palm oil (Elaies guinnesis) production and livelihood strategy among rural women in Nigeria

Olabode, A. D; Arasanyin, P. G.

doi:10.21608/svuijas.2025.371103.1454

Palm oil (Elaies guinnesis) production and livelihood strategy among rural women in Nigeria

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Department of Geography and Planning Sciences, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, Ondo State, Nigeria

10.21608/svuijas.2025.371103.1454

Abstract

The increasing level of poverty in Nigeria has forced more women to embark on numerous livelihood strategies that include palm oil production. This study aimed to investigate the social economic impact of palm oil production on women’s livelihood in Akoko region, Ondo State, Nigeria. The objectives of the study were to; examine Socioeconomic characteristics of the palm oil producer, mode of palm oil production in Akoko region, determine the relationship between women socioeconomic variables and indices of palm oil production in Akoko Region, determine the impacts of palm oil production on women livelihood, and to examine the challenges of palm oil production in the study area. Data for the study were collected from primary and secondary sources. 200 women were selected across 67 palm oil production sites and were administered with copies of questionnaire using simple random sampling technique. The study employed a mix of descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, and regression analysis for method of data analysis. Findings revealed positive relationships between level of palm oil production and the socio-economic variables of women that include, age (r = 0.67), marital status (r= 0.43), educational status (r= 0.61), household size (r= 0.23) and annual income (r= 0.51) at p > 0.05. Study revealed lack of improved seedlings, access to credit and loan facilities, processing facilities, and high cost of agro-chemicals, poor market strategy have limited palm oil production in the study area.The study concluded that palm oil production is significant to women survival in terms of income generation, but its current production dominated by 67.5% local methods could no longer sustainable. Therefore, it is recommended that adoption of modern technologies, and training of their uses and women access to credit and loan facilities will be adequate for an improved livelihood among rural women.

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