Breaking Down Barriers: An Assessment of Women’s Involvement in Community Forestry Processes in Tundu Sariki Village, Sabon Gari, Zaria -Kaduna State, Nigeria.

Abstract

Contribution of women is often assigned a zero in National Agricultural statistic with their Labour considered “unpaid family help” consequently rural women are ignored or not adequately reflected in forestry or agricultural development. It is based on these premises that this research was carried out to examine the involvement of women’s in community forestry using Tudun Sarki village as a case study. Simple random sampling technique was used in the selection of the respondents. 120 questionnaires were administered and a 100 was retrieved. Results revealed that 64% of the respondents are married and 50% fall between age limit of 21 – 30 years with 42% having more than (>10 years) ten years of experience in forestry activities. 52% made an average of #5001- #10,000 per month. Majority are literate (32%)  and the major forestry benefits derived from community forest is food, fodder and fuelwood (40%), Closely followed by medicine, dyes and cosmetics (35%) while Utensils and handcrafts have (16%), Women carried out majority of the work done in community nursery (72%|), preparation process (86%), Field planting (72%) when compared with their male counterpart. Profit making is the major (38%) reason while most women engaged in community forestry through sales of forestry products. The Chi – Square(X²) analysis shows that all the independent variables gave significant relationship with the involvement of women in community forestry in Tudun Sarki village at (P>0.05). Women bring unique perspectives, Knowledge and skills to the table, enhancing the overall effectiveness of community forestry initiatives.