Perception of Women on Commercialisation of the Nigeria-Canada Indigenous Vegetables Project in Southwestern Nigeria

Abstract

The paper investigated the perception of women toward the commercialisation of the NICANVEG indigenous vegetables project. A survey research design was used for the study. Samples of 390 women (300 for quantitative and 90 for qualitative) were used for the study. The samples were selected from three out of the four states in Southwestern Nigeria where the project took place between 2011 and 2014. Two adapted instruments titled “Questionnaire on NICANVEG Project and Commercialisation (QNPC)” and “Interview on NICANVEG Project and Commercialisation” (INPC) were used to collect data. Data collected were analysed using percentages, relative significant index, chi-square and software package (Atlas ti) statistical analyses. The results showed that 182 (60.7%) of the women expressed a positive perception towards the commercialisation of the product. It was showed that the extent of involvement of women in the commercialisation indicated that 78.0% of the women participated in full-scale commercialisation of NICANVEG indigenous vegetables. Again, the result showed the major challenges facing commercialisation of the vegetables were expensive farm equipment ( = 3.57, RSI = 0.719), untimely fund ( = 3.53 RSI = 0.711) and poor market prices of vegetables ( = 3.32, RSI = 0.666). Above all, the result showed a significant relationship between levels of participation in the training on NICANVENG indigenous vegetables project and the extent of commercialization of the product (χ2 = 111.865, p < 0.05). The study concluded that positive perception of the participants had enhanced the commercialization of the indigenous vegetables.