Table 1: Structure of farmer's household across crops in the ATASP-1 Project

the mean ages recorded across the zone stems from the fact that farmers across the zones are still at their active age of below 50 years and as such can still make meaningful contributions to agriculture activities in particular and economic activities in general.

Table 1: Structure of farmer’s household across crops in the ATASP -1 Project Crops

Socio-economic characteristic Age 21-30 31-40 41-50 51-60 > 60 Mean Cassava

Sorghum Rice 7(11.67) 11(13.75) 13(16.25 12(20) 15(18.75) 17(21.25) 17(28.33 23(28.75) 30(37.5) 18(30) 20(25) 18(22.5) 6(10) 10(12.5) 2(6.67)

46.67 43.74 43.6

Min Max 31.00 72.33 27.25 21.5 62.75 62

Figures in parentheses are percentages

5.1.2 Gender of Respondents On the gender distribution of the people engaged in ATASP-1 project, table 2 revealed that 75% of the people involved in cassava production under the project were male, while 25% were female nationally. However, looking at the gender structure by SCPZ, 90% of male in BadejiBida and 10% for female participated in the project while it was 100% for male in Kano-Jigawa and 75% male and 25% female in Adani-Omor. The non involvement of women in cassava production in Kano-Jigawa were possibly due to cultural-religion factor as well as the fact that the crop is relatively not as popular as grain crops where women are very much involved in their production and processing.

On the other hand the gender distribution showed that about 49% of those involved in sorghum production under the project nationally are men while 51% are women. Looking at it on zonal basis, it was 20% for men and 80 for female in Sokoto-Kebbi, 95% for men and 5% for women in Badeji-Bida, 15 for men and 85% for women in Kano-Jigawa and 65% for men and 35% for women in Adani-Omar. The result showed that there was heavy participation of women in the sorghum production under the project than men in the north which is the traditional home for sorghum production.

For rice, in Kebbi-Sokoto SCPZ, only 10% of the participants in rice are women while 90% are male, for Bida-Badeggi SCPZ, only 5% of rice participants are women while 95% are men. However, in Kano-Jigawa SCPZ, there were no women involved in rice production while in Adani-Omor, 15% of rice participating farmer are women while 85% are male. The national outlook showed that 92.5% of total participating farmers are men while only 7.5 are women.