Gender inequality in livestock ownership, decision-making, and productivity: Evidence from Nigeria

Global Food and Nutrition Security

This IFPRI Discussion Paper uses individual-level data from Nigeria's 2022/23 Agricultural Sample Survey to assess gender inequalities in livetosk ownership, decision making and productivity. The authors report that women are less likely than men to own large ruminants (7.1 percentage points), small ruminants (5.8 points) and monogastrics (1.4 points), and more likely to own poultry (9.7 points). Women are reported to be 19.2 percentage points less likely to control livestock income even where actively involved in production, and enterprises managed by women produce about 3.2 litres less milk and 1.8 to 3.2 fewer eggs per week, controlling for herd size and zone. The authors attribute the persistence of income-control gaps to structural constraints such as inheritance norms and intrahousehold bargaining. They recommend gender-responsive interventions that combine asset transfers and market access with measures to strengthen women's decision-making authority, and the monitoring of economic agency with individual-level indicators.

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Gender inequality in livestock ownership, decision-making, and productivity: Ev…

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Authors	Olufemi A. Popoola; Oliver K. Kirui; Opeyemi Olanrewaju; Temilolu Bamiwuye; Adetunji Fasoranti; Chibuzo Nwagboso
Geographic coverage	Nigeria
Available from	10 Nov 2026
Related organisation(s)	CGIAR - Consortium of International Agricultural Research Centers
Knowledge service \| Metadata	Global Food and Nutrition Security \| Gender Equality and Food Systems \| Smallholder farmer
Digital Europa Thesaurus (DET)	gender equality livestock livestock farming social inequality

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