Abstract

The study was conducted with the purpose to unveil the gender gap in the adoption of fish farming technologies in Ilaje and Ese-Odo Local Government Areas of Ondo State. The study investigated the involvement of men and women at different stages of fish production, the level of adoption of available fishery technologies and their socio- economic characteristics. Two hundred respondents were interviewed for the study via structured and pre-tested interview schedule, in the two purposively selected Local Government Areas using a multi stage sampling technique. Majority (80.0%) of the respondents were male and majority (76.3%) of male and (52.5%) of female farmers were found within the productive age of 31 to 60 years. Both male and female farmers (63.5 and 67.6%), respectively had low adoption level due to the characteristics of the technologies. However, men were found to be more involved at different stages of fish production except in processing and marketing where majority were found to be women. Moreso, the findings revealed that at p<0.01, there were significant differences in the level of involvement of men and women in all the stages of fish production except in processing of fish.In addition, at p<0.05, significant differences existed between men and women level of adoption of race-way method, water management techniques while at p< 0.01, there was a significant difference in fish feeding techniques between men and women fish farmers. The study concludes that fish farming in Ondo state is dominanted by male with low adoption of fish farming technologies. Gender equality principles should be mainstreamed into clear and effective technology development and dissemination to fish farmers in Ondo State with a view to enhancing fishproduction and sustainable socio-economic livelihood among fish farmers in Nigeria.

Key words: Gender, adoption, technologies, fish farming.