Urbanization on Sustainable Livelihood of Women in Port Harcourt Metropolis, Rivers State, Nigeria
Abstract
The study assessed the effect of urbanization on the sustainable livelihood of women in Port Harcourt Metropolis. Structured interview schedule was used to elicit information from 105 women using the simple random technique. Purposive sampling method was used to select 7 core areas based on their state of rural before urbanization. The areas selected were Borokiri and Abuloma (Phalga), Eneka (Obalga), Obibo (Oyigbo), Akpajo (Eleme) and Igwuruta (Ikwerre). Data collected were subjected to descriptive statistics. Findings from the study revealed that 27% of the respondents were in the age range of 30-39, a higher percentage (41%) is married and can read and write (89%). The mean farming experience is 18 years and a higher percentage (24%) has been farming for 21-25 years. Furthermore, the study revealed that crop farming (21%) is predominately the source of livelihood for women including fishing (19.19%) and snail farming (19.1%). The perceived areas of urbanization were farm lands (m = 2.93), streams (m = 2.63), forest (m = 2.72), houses (2.60) and town halls (m = 2.55).  The effects of urbanization on the sustainable livelihood of women in the study area were; urbanization has affected their social life (m=2.90), cultural activities (m=2.60), reduced farming activities (m=3.10), development of the area (m=2.90), led to high crime rate (m=2.55), resulted to no landed inheritance for future generation (m=2.61), congestion (m-2.52) and pollution (m=2.50). They study recommended that women should be taught how to use improved technologies and methods in order to increase their production on the available land farm.
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