Women participation in fish processing and packaging in rural communities of Delta State, Nigeria

The study investigated women participation in fish processing and packaging in Delta State, Nigeria. Multi stage sampling procedure was used in the selection of 180 respondents for the study. Data for the study was collected using structured questionnaire, focus group discussion and participatory observation. Data collected were analyzed using simple descriptive statistics, mean scores and inferential statistics. The result indicated that majority of the women were married (57%) and literate with few having non-formal education (38%). The result further indicated that the three major processing methods used by the women to include hot smoking (57%), air drying (25%), and salting (19.4%). Packaging methods include baskets (47.2%), paper cartons (37.2%), jute bags (46.0%) and palm rope (58.0%) used in tying staked fish. The probit regression analysis on socio-economic factors affecting participation of women in fish processing and packaging indicated that age (0.00642***), education (0.00256**), income (0.3609**), access to credit (0.00068**), household size (0.2475**) and access to market (0.03150**) are all positive and significantly related to participation of women in fish processing and packaging. The study recommends the formation of cooperative societies among themselves to ease off some of the problems they encountered in their enterprise. Key words: Processing, packaging, women, rural communities.