The research focused on gender roles in rice farming in the Southern Agricultural Zone of Plateau State, Nigeria. The researcher used structured questionnaires to collect information on gender roles in rice farming. The researcher used the multi-stage sampling technique to select 109 male rice farmers and 92 female rice farmers, totaling 201 respondents for the study. The researcher used descriptive and inferential statistics to analyze the research findings. The research findings revealed that rice farmers were at an appropriate age to participate in rice farming. On average, male rice farmers were 42.9 years old, while their female counterparts were on average 42.5 years old. Though the size of the households of both the male and the female rice farmers was almost similar, while the majority (56.0%) of the male rice farmers had a household size of 6-10 persons, the majority (52.2%) of the female rice farmers had a household size of 6-10 persons. However, the research findings showed that there was a significant difference in the level of educational attainment between the two sexes. While the majority (98.2%) of the male rice farmers had one form of education or another, the majority (91.3%) of the female rice farmers had one form of education or another. The average farm experience was 9-10 years for both males and females, while farm sizes were small with males cultivating larger sizes than female farmers (4.8 ha) compared to their female counterparts (2.6 ha). The result on annual income showed that male farmers earned significantly more than their female counterparts on average (₦976,792) compared to female farmers (₦753,260). More male farmers were in the highest income bracket compared to female farmers, where more were in the lowest bracket. Male rice farmers were always engaged in tilling/land preparation (x̄ = 2.60), ridging (x̄ = 2.53), herbicide application (x̄ = 2.03), pesticide application (x̄ = 2.17), harvesting (x̄ = 2.63), and milling (x̄ = 2.31). The results showed that men dominate in many of the physically demanding and mechanized tasks in rice production like fertilizer application 96.3%, milling 90.8%, and ridging 84.4%. On the other hand, majority (97.8%) of the female respondents were engaged in threshing, 81.5% in parboiling, and 93.5% also join in fertilizer application. The results revealed that male involvement in rice farming was significantly influenced by their marital status (β = -6.227; -3.436), age (β = 1.104), farming experience (β = 2.797), and income (β = 2.813; 1.085), while female involvement in rice farming was significantly influenced by household size (β = -1.991), education (β = -3.439), farming experience (β = 0.424), and income (β = 0.104), indicating a gender difference in socio-economic factors influencing their involvement in rice farming. The conclusion drawn was that there are disparities in terms of gender in relation to the use of resources, gender roles, and productivity in rice farming. It was recommended that there should be policy reforms aimed at strengthening land rights for women, gender-sensitive credit services, subsidized farming inputs, enhanced extension services, climate-smart practices, and cooperatives for rice farmers.
Keywords: Assessment, Factors, Gender roles., rice farming, rural farmers
