**2. Methodology of the study**

*Maize - Production and Use*

Pakistan, women carryout 53% of farming activities, and devote 20% more time than men for work. Yet, they face more constraints than men as they are negatively affected by socio-cultural values, economics policies and decision making in the society. Lately, studies have shown that the underlying reasons of food losses are

Maize is a major staple crop in Nigeria and across Africa. It is said to be the second most common cereal food crop after rice [4]. Green fresh maize is cooked or roasted and hawked by women and children, providing a livelihood for many urban poor households. It is also used for animal feeds and in industries such as flour mills, breweries and confectioneries. Thus, increased maize production will enhance food security, serve as import substitution and earn foreign exchange for the country through export to neighbouring food deficient countries and potentially beyond [1]. In most places across the country, women are found to mostly undertake activities that range from harvesting, transportation of harvested crops from the farms to homes, processing, preservation, packaging and marketing [5]. The women equally provide about 60% of agricultural labour force and contribute to well-being of their households through their income generating activities [6]. Historical trends have suggested that the majority of increased maize production in Nigeria reflects an expansion in land under its cultivation rather than an improvement in yields [7]. In 2010, the estimate for Corn production in Nigeria was put to about 8800 Metric tonnes with growth rate of −1.68% and in the year 2012, it rose to about 9410 Metric tonnes for which the growth rate was put to 1.73%. In recent time, Nigeria's yield per hectare is found to be lower than the global yields in the 1960s (1.9 tons/ha). It falls in the range of 1.63 and 1.76 tons per hectare between 2004 and 2007, this is lower than the global average which could be found in the range of 4.88 and 4.93 tons per hectares for the same period [8]. Meanwhile, Kogi State recorded about 333.21 Metric tonnes of corn production with the area under cultivation of 206.60 Hectare in 2009 and in 2010, it increased minimally to 371.30 MT with area under cultivation of 227.05 hectares [9]. Kogi State is one of the

associated with specific socio-cultural and gender dimensions [2, 3].

36 states in Nigeria and it is in the North-central of the country.

exportable surplus is to be sustained and expanded.

Maize post-harvest losses in the tropics have been estimated to be about 20% [10]. Estimated losses of Nigeria maize post-harvest to have ranged from 15 to 20%. Nigeria has a land area of 98.3 million hectares and at present about 34 million hectares or 48% are under cultivation. It has been found that more than 60% of maize produced in Nigeria's is used industrially for the production of flour, beer, malt drink, corn flakes, starch, syrup, dextrose and animal feeds. An embargo has been placed on the importation of maize in order to boost local production to meet the consumption demand of Nigeria. This reveals significant room for the improvement of maize production in Nigeria which is necessary if the newly developing trend of

According to [11, 12] the post-harvest operations of maize include drying, shelling, threshing, storage and marketing. Apart from the foregoing activities [13], added grading and sorting, packing and bagging, transportation, loading and unloading. Post-harvest management of maize can be categorized into four major stages [5]. The first stage is farm-gate operations which include de-sheathing and packing harvested maize cobs together when they are mature.; the second is transportation, when cobs are transported from farms to homesteads; the third is homestead activities which constitutes drying and grading of cobs, shelling of cobs and drying the grains, winnowing of grains, application of pesticides, packing grains at household level and the fourth stage is storage of maize where grains are stored for later use. Studies have shown that proper post-harvest handling can improve earnings of maize growers especially for the women folk [14, 15]. This study focused on

**132**

This study was carried out in Kogi State, Nigeria. The State consists of 21 Local Government Areas. The State is located between latitude 6° 30′N and 8° 5′N and longitude 5° 51E and 8° 00E. The state is made up of four agro-ecological zones, namely: Zone A with the headquarter in Aiyetoro Gbede; Zone B has its headquarter in Anyigba; Zone C with headquarter in Koton Karfe; and Zone D has its headquarter in Alloma. This delineation or stratification of the State into these Zones was done By Kogi State Agricultural Development Projects (KSADP) in order to ease their extension service delivery for optimum results in the State.

The state is well endowed with river valleys and swamps lands for dry season farming. Maize is one of the major crops grown in the state and thrives well in virtually all the agro-ecological zones of the State. For the purpose of this study registered farmers were randomly selected. A total of 168 farmers were selected for the study. A three stage random sampling technique was used. In stage one, four (3) extension blocks were randomly selected from each of the agricultural zones (A, B, C, D), that gives a total of 12 extension blocks. There are five blocks in each zone. In stage two, three (2) extension cells were randomly selected from each block, making a total of 24 extension cells. There are 8 cells in each zone. In stage three, five (7) registered farmers were randomly selected from each cell. There are 80 farmers in each cell. A total of 168 farmers were used for study. Structured questionnaire and interview scheduled were used to elicit information from the respondents. The date collected was analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistical tools. The hypothesis for the study was tested using Chi-square (X<sup>2</sup> ) statistics. The calculation of Chi-square statistics is given as follows: X2 = \_

$$\mathbf{X}^2 = \frac{\sum \text{(fo-fe)}\mathbf{2}}{\text{fe}} \tag{1}$$

where χ<sup>2</sup> = Chi-square value.

fo = the observed frequency of levels of women participation in post-harvest operations in the Zones (A, B, C and D).

fe = the expected frequency of levels of women participation in post-harvest operations in the Zones (A, B, C and D).

ɗf = (R-1) (C-1).

*Decision rule*: the Null Hypothesis is rejected when χ2 Computed ≥ χ2 Tabulated under the degree of freedom.

*Null hypothesis (Ho)*: there is no significant difference in the levels of postharvest operations of maize in the various agro-ecological zones (A, B, C and D) of the study area.
