THE ROLE OF RURAL WOMEN FARMERS ON THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

 
The role of rural women farmers in the economic development of Ese-Odo Local Government Area in Ondo State cannot be over emphasized. There is basically no aspect of economic development in Ondo State that one cannot find women. A review of feminist literature, indicate that there is now a demand for re-orientation of research and change in methodological procedures used for complication of national statistics so as to reflect accurately the position of women and their labour in the national economy in general and Ondo State in particular. On the realization of the role women play in our daily life, it is therefore necessary to identify the role as a point of reference. It is on this basic aim prompted as a research to go into the findings. The objective of this project work therefore is to highlight the role of rural women farmers in Ese Odo Local Government Area of Ondo State with a view to identifying attendant problem and indicating necessary recommendation. Attention is focused on the rural women farmers in the economic activities through agricultural, strategies are indicated for using women as a catalyst for employment generation and for solving Ese-Odo Local Government Area food agriculture and economic development problem. Women need to be encouraged to broaden their base and increase their scale of operation particularly in agro industries and through self employment. They need to learn to mobilize saving rotary credit scheme in order to be affected throughout cooperatives and other association or through small enterprises.
 
Women in Ese-Odo Local Government Area in Ondo State inspite of their daily roles to improve the existing standard are being looked down upon by their male counterpart as playing the second fiddle. A review of feminist literature indicate that there is now a demand for re-orientation of research and changes in methodological procedures used for complication of national income. There are at least three stands to this firstly; there is the issue that a considerable portion of women’s labour is not reflection in Ese-Odo Local Government statistics. This is a phenomenon due to the fact that the labour of the house wife is not traded and valued at market prices. Secondly, there is the formal versus informal sector issue. On a world wide basis, but more so in the developing countries of the world women constitute the greater percentage of the informal sector labour forces. Thirdly, there is the rural-urban dichotomy more of ten than not, women are left behind when there is male migration from rural to urban areas. These three issues are mutually self explanatory as women get left behind in the rural areas. They have limited opportunities for self improvement. They are therefore suitable mainly informal sector employment. Their labour as house wives, house maids etc is not accurately affected in nation statistics. Another relevant issue is that where women are in selection for religions or social reasons, enumerators who are more often men cannot meet the women to accurately appraise their labour input.
The objective of this paper is therefore to highlight the role of women in economic development of Ese-Odo Local Government Area in Ondo State with view to identifying attendant problem and suggesting possible solution.
The basic premise of this essay is that the non involvement or marginalization of women in development programmes is wasteful and impedes effective economic development. Its effect is similar to inadequate use of factor of production in agriculture which means that the production possibilities curve is lower than it should be on the basis of this premise, the problem associated with the involvement of women in the economic development of Ondo State and strategies of solving these problems are discussed.
H1: Rural women farmers have significant economic contribution to the economic development of Ese Odo Local Government Area of Ondo State. 
The entire work I this project is divided into five chapters, chapter one is introduction, while chapter two review the literature of economic development, chapter three contain the methodological approach of the role of women in economic development in Ese Odo Local Government Area of Ondo State and the finding of what role women played which are not identified as economic development chapter four is discussion, while the last chapter of this project gives the summary of findings, conclusion and policy recommendations.