Resource Management Skill Improvement Needs of Women Farmers in Melon Production for Poverty Reduction in Enugu State, Nigeria

This paper aimed at examining the resource management skill improvement needs of women farmers in melon production for poverty reduction. Six objectives and six research questions guided the study. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. The study was carried out in Enugu State. The population for the study was 1,034 persons made up of 484 teachers of agricultural science in senior secondary schools, 490 registered women farmers and 60 officials of agricultural extension. The sample for the study was 255 respondents. The instrument used for data collection was one hundred and nine structured questionnaire skill items questionnaire. The instrument was face validated by 3 experts. The Cronbach Alpha method was use to determine the internal consistency of the skill items. The values obtained were 0.85 and 0.88 which represented the Cronbach Alpha reliability coefficient (R) of the instrument. The data collected were analyzed using weighted mean and improvement needed index (INI) to answer the research questions. It was found out from the study that women farmers needed 13 resource management skills in planning for melon production enterprise, 10 skills in pre-planting operation, 6 skills in planting operation, 45 skills in post-planting and post-harvest operations and 7 skills in marketing operation in melon production in Enugu State. It was therefore recommended that the resources management skill identified by this study should be utilized by administrators skill acquisition centres to develop a training programme for retraining women farmers in resources management skills in melon production among others.