Dr Tonye V. Odubo

Conservatively, women make up 60% of agricultural labour in Nigeria, yet they are generally considered to be farm helpers rather than farmers. This limits their role in decision-making processes and exposure to economic opportunities, which should grow into active participation in planning processes.

Despite their limited land rights coupled with rising seasonal flood levels, women in the Niger Delta play a prominent cultural role in agriculture; this includes their contribution to household food security. Most households lack food security as women are faced with limited access to land, credits, extension services and inputs, as well as the rising levels of annual floods, environmental degradation and pests (constraints related to their reproductive role should also be taken into account).

Dr Tonye Odubo’s research will investigate the cultural norms in sub-Saharan Africa that have long encouraged women to engage in various agricultural activities to provide food for their households. This has never been truer than in Bayelsa State in Nigeria, where a woman’s duty is farming and providing food for the family. Dr Odubo aims to study women’s rights to land and agricultural development. Her objectives include ascertaining the role of women in agriculture, examining women’s land rights, assessing access to land and analysing household food security.

Primary data will be sourced through administration interview schedules for women farmers in seven local government areas in Bayelsa State. Recommendations of the study are expected to enable women to be honestly heard and considered in development, not just for political correctness but with conscious effort and commitment to the development of agriculture.


Dr Tonye Odubo holds a PhD in Geography and Environmental Management (Rural Development Planning) and an MSc in Geography and Environmental Management from the University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria. She also has a BTech degree in Urban and Regional Planning from the Rivers State University of Science and Technology, also in Nigeria. She is a lecturer in the Department of Geography and Environmental Management, Niger Delta University, Nigeria. Dr Odubo’s research interests include land tenure systems and access to land, women in agriculture and household food security, environmental hazards and rural livelihoods, and maternal mortality and access to healthcare in rural areas. She has been published in keys areas such as women in agriculture, environmental hazards and livelihood sustainability, water sanitation and hygiene, urban renewal, and the application of geographical information systems in taxation.