Rural Women's Empowerment through Education in Southern Nigeria: Implications for Global Food Security

Women empowerment has become a topical issue across the world. However, the trend is often skewed against rural women. Yet, rural women, who are predominantly farmers, bear several burdens both within the family and in the society as a whole. Particularly, as it has become generally accepted that the task of attaining food security rests on the shoulders of rural women. However, rural women farmers do not often have the necessary agricultural productive input such as land, technologies and credit facilities, they require for their farming activities. In addition, they do not have the liberty to participate in leadership roles and decision making. Social norms bar them from these privileges. Data for this paper was obtained from an empirical study conducted in Edo State, Southern Nigeria. A total number of 457 women were involved in the quantitative study. Findings show that only 0.2% has attended any farmers' education program. This paper combines both empirical data and existing global literature to affirm rural women as farm managers and argues that since their efficiency determines global food security, then the need to educate them cannot be overemphasized. The paper concludes that women should be empowered through farmers' education to be more efficient in their occupation. This action is vital for them to be able to contribute more to global food security.