Women Perception of Effect of Oil Spillage on Farming Activities in South Eastern Nigeria: Implication for Household Food Security

This study investigated the perceived effect of oil spillage on the farming activities of women farmers in Ethiope West Local Government Area of Delta State, Nigeria. Data collection was made using structured interview schedule. A simple random sampling technique was used to select 120 respondents from 6 major villages where oil spillage persistently occurred in the study area. Frequency distribution, percentages, mean, standard deviation, Chi-square and Pearson correlation were employed in analyzing the data. The result revealed that more than half (55.0%) of the respondents were within the ages of 40 years and above, 70.8% of them were married, with 58.3% of the respondents having a large household size between 7 and 9 and majority (73.3%) had no formal education. Majority (73.4%) earns less than 10,000.00 and 50,000.00 per annum. The major coping strategies employed by the respondents against the menace of oil spillage include: depending on their husband for survival (80.8%), purchasing food crops from neighbouring communities (70.0%) and migration to towns (57.5%). The result of hypothesis tested revealed that significant relationships existed between age (X2 = 0.906, p<0.05), marital status (X2 = 7.945, p<0.05), education (X2 = 6.317, p<0.05), family size (r = 0.355, <0.05) and perceived effect of oil spillage, income (r = -0.031, p<0.05) had negative and non-significant relationship. It was therefore recommended that the government should embark on capacity building for women in order to empower women financially against the menace of oil spillage.