Abstract

Stress management is gender related and an attempt to understand it demands empirical analysis. It is in this view that this study was carried out to determine the stress management strategies employed among arable crop farmers based on gender, using Oke- Ogun area of Oyo State. Saki Zone was purposively selected from the Four ADP zones in Oyo State. A proportionate sampling method was used to select a sample size of 171 respondents. The findings of the study revealed that 57.9 percent of the respondents were men, while 42.1 percent were women. Majority (93.8%) of the men were involved in tedious farm operations while operations requiring less energy were carried out by women (85.4%). The age (r=0.174, p=0.023) and level of education (?2=8.274, p=0.041) of the respondents were found to have significant relationship with the stress management strategies employed along gender line. Further findings of the study revealed a significant difference in the level of severity in each of financial stressors (t=5.90, p=0.000), weather stressors (t=6.31, p=0.000), Health related stressor (t=6.03, p=0.000) and other people related stressor categories experienced by crop farmers along gender line. Also, there was a significant difference in the stress management strategies employed for financial (t=3.90, p=0.000) and weather (t=0.77, p=0.000) related stressors along gender line. It is concluded that both men and women are involved in arable crop production and both experience stress but women farmers reported a higher level of stress than men. The study recommended that women arable farmers should be given more access to resources and energy saving technologies should be developed for both male and female arable crop farmers.

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