CAPACITY BUILDING NEEDS OF WOMEN FARMERS IN TOMATO PROCESSING ENTERPRISE IN BENUE STATE FOR NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

The paper focused on capacity building needs of women farmers in tomato processing enterprise in Benue state for national development. Three research questions were developed and answered by the study. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The study was carried out in Benue State, which is made up of three Agricultural zones. Six Local Government Areas were used and 25 women farmers were selected from each Local Government Area giving a total of 150 respondents. There was no further sampling of the population because it is small and can be well managed. The instrument for data collection is a structured questionnaire made up of 62 items. The instrument was validated by three experts; one from the Department of Agricultural Education and two from the Department of crop production all from Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi. Cronbach alpha reliability method was used to determine the internal consistency of the instrument which yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.89. 150 copies of the questionnaire were administered to the respondents by the researcher through personal contact with the help of two research assistants.  All the copies of the questionnaire were answered and returned. The data collected were analysed using mean and improvement need index  to determine the capacity building needs of women farmers  in tomato processing enterprise in Benue State for national development. The difference between the needed mean and the performance mean (XN-XP) constituted the gap for capacity for which women farmers need capacity building. It was discovered that women farmers have limited knowledge in tomato processing and it was recommended that women farmers should be trained in various aspects of tomato processing enterprise, among others