Utilization of entrepreneurial information among rural women farmers in Akinyele Local Government Area Oyo State

s— Entrepreneurship on a small scale is the only solution to the problems of unemployment and proper utilization of both human and non-human resources and improving the leaving conditions of the poor masses. Therefore, Utilization of entrepreneurial information among rural women farmers in Akinyele Local Government Area Oyo State was investigated. 200 respondents with the aid of well structured questionnaire were selected through Multi-stage sampling technique. Data were analyzed using frequency counts, percentage and means and PPMC at 0.05% level of significance. The result of analysis revealed that most 45.5% of respondents are in their active age, married with majority (41.5%) had farming experience between 16 years and above. Also, utilization of entrepreneurial information among women farmers is high. However, Securing working capital, lack of transportation, lack of information and delay of payment, high cost of labor and high cost of inputs are major constraints faced by rural women farmers in the study area. PPMC Analysis reveals that there is significant relationship between constraints faced by rural women farmers and utilization of entrepreneurial information (r-value =0.365and pvalve = 0.000).It is therefore recommended that Rural women farmers should be introduced to the internet, in order to get more information on entrepreneurship. And also, various tiers of government should create programs that will catalyze entrepreneurial development with the aid entrepreneur information (with special focus for women) in the rural areas. Keywords— Utilization, Rural, Women farmers, Entrepreneurial information.


INTRODUCTION
Rural women are active agents of economic and social change and environmental protection who are, in many ways and to various degrees, constrained in their roles as farmers, producers, investors, caregivers and consumers. They play crucial roles ensuring food and nutrition security, eradicating rural poverty and improving the well-being of their families yet continue to face serious challenges as a result of gender based stereotypes and discrimination that deny them equitable access to opportunities, resources, assets and services. Women are the backbone of the rural economy, especially in the developing world. Yet they receive only a fraction of the land, credit, inputs (such as improved seeds and fertilizers), agricultural training and information compare to men. Empowering and investing in rural women as been shown to significantly increase productivity, reduce hunger, and malnutrition and improve rural livelihood.
Information utilization is particularly important to entrepreneur's final decision because information is deemed to be worthless if it is not put to good use (Ottun and Moore 1997), Suggest that information utilization be conceptualized in terms of type and extent of usage in the decision making process. Information is the powerful knowledge resource that can enhance competitive advantage. In particularly information pertaining to customers and competitors are crucial towards the development of market orientation. Information acquisition and utilization is an important activity particularly salient for firms that have high levels of (According to Pleter (2005), the entrepreneurs are business people who build (start), develop and manage a business, risking time, efforts and money to this purpose. The entrepreneurship as a concept refers to an ability of the individual to put into practice an idea possessing some qualities such as creativity, innovation, risk taking, and ability to plan and manage the activities in view of fulfilling the proposed goals. This term knows different approaches at the level of each state, being influenced by certain elements such as education, culture, and environment, legislative and political system (Piti, 2010). The managerial and self-control qualities of the entrepreneur have evolved as two new major dimensions of their personality, in addition to the traditional concept that the entrepreneurs are involved in risk taking, that is, they are innovative and creative (Biswas, 2000). The recognition and evaluation of business opportunities represents the beginning of the entrepreneurial process (Baron and Henry, 2010). The individual entrepreneur detects or creates business opportunities that he then exploits by small and medium size enterprises, usually taking part in the financing of capital for that company, or merely, "he sells" the idea of the business project (Cuervo et al, 2010). It is against this backdrop that this research investigated the extent of Utilization of entrepreneurial information among rural women farmers in Akinyele Local Government Area Oyo State with the following specific objectives; 1. To identify the socio economic characteristics of the respondent in the study area. 2. To assess the utilization of entrepreneurial information among rural women farmers in the study area. 3. To ascertain the constraint faced by rural women farmers in the utilization of entrepreneurial information in the study area.

Hypothesis of the study
Ho1 -There is no significant relationship between constraints faced by rural women farmers and utilization of entrepreneurial information in the study area.

II. MATERIALS AND METHODS
The study was carried out in Akinyele Local government area which was created in 1976 with the administrative headquarters located at Moniya.

Sampling Procedure and Sample size
Multistage sampling techniques were used to select respondents in the study area. First stage involved randomly selecting six (6) out of twelve wards in Akinyele local government area, Oyo state, Nigeria. Second stage involved purposively selecting twenty (20) villages/communities from the randomly selected wards. Third stage involved randomly selecting Ten (10) respondents in each of the twenty (20) purposively selected villages/ communities, which account for a total of two hundred (200) respondents used as sample size for the study.

Data Analysis
Descriptive statistics such as frequency distribution, percentage was used to analyses all objectives while PPMC for hypothesis of the study.

Socio-economic characteristics of respondents
The result of analysis in Table 1 shows that 45.5% of the respondents fall within the age range of 31-40 years age bracket, 25.0% were between the age range of 41-50, 22.5% follows between the age range of 50 and above, while only 7.0% between the age range of 20-30. The result shows that the range of 31-40 have the highest percentage; this implies that most of women farmers are still in their active age. This agrees with the finding of Odebode (2008) who reported that perception and acceptability of innovation is mainly associated with youthful and active age of farmers. Also, the table shows that (85.5%) of the respondents were married, (7.5%) were widowed, (6.5%) were single, while (0.5%) were divorced. This is supported with the findings of Adelore et al (2006) that most farmers are married. Based on their educational level, result shows that (28.0%) of the respondents has primary education (23.5%) of the respondents has adult education, (20.0%) of the respondents had no formal education, (19.5%) of the respondents had secondary education, and (9.0%) of the respondents had tertiary education. This implies that majority of the women farmers within the study area are not well educated. Furthermore, Table 1 (55.5%) of the respondents were Christians while (44.5%) of the respondents were Muslims. More so, the result also shows that respondents with household size of 1-4 were (38.0%), 5-8 were (52.5%) while 9 and above were (9.5%). This implies that the larger the household size the more labor availability and the more income requirement to meet household needs. Also, (73.0%) 0f the respondents had their secondary occupation as trading. This means they have another job apart from being a farmer which can be used to generate more income into the family. The result above further shows that, (4.0%) of the respondents had farming experience between 1-5years, (23.5%) had farming experience between 6-10years, (31.0%) had farming experience of between 11-15years, while (41.5%) had farming experience between 16 years and above. Source: field survey 2018 The result shows that majority of the respondents 71.5% and 59.5% respectively rely heavily on the information acquired on entrepreneurship and make use of different types of support that is offered to people who want to start their own business respectively. This implies that knowledge is shared out so as to acquire more because no man is an island of knowledge. Also, the table shows that 29.5% of the respondents never delegates tasks and responsibilities to their employees.Also, 85.5% of the respondents persist in the face of their adversity because an entrepreneur is confronted with The table 2b above shows that utilization of entrepreneurial information among women farmers is high with 55.0%. This means that majority of the women farmers in the study area are utilizing the information they get from entrepreneurship development to boost the economy.   The result in table 3 shows that 87.0% and 86.5% of the respondents respectively stated that securing working capital and insufficient financial assistance by financial institution has been a major constraint in utilizing entrepreneurial information in the study area. This implies that there is no adequate funding either by government or cooperative societies and it makes farmers unable to utilize entrepreneurial information. Also, 48.0% of the respondents stated that lack of transportation facilities is a major constraint they face. This implies that there is bad transportation network in our rural areas and this always leads to spoilage of products in the process of transporting it to the urban areas while 41.0% of the respondents also lack market information. Furthermore, the high cost of labor 78.0% has been a major constraint in utilizing entrepreneurial information. This implies that there is limited number of labors or sometimes limited skilled labor to perform the practice effectively. Also, 71.0% of the respondents in the study area are faced with gender inequality problems. This implies that, in many cases the women entrepreneurs also faced non acceptance from domestic front. Their family members especially the males of the family were not ready to digest the fact that the women were earning more than them and stepping out of the house.    The table 4 above shows that there is significant relationship between constraints faced by rural women farmers and utilization of entrepreneurial information (R-value =0.365and p-valve = 0.000). This is in line with the report findings of (Aculai et al., 2006; Aidis, 2006) when necessary resources are available to women entrepreneurs, women still hesitate to set up units or do not succeed in their ventures due to constraint imposed on them by their immediate environment such as family commitments and lack of market opportunity.

IV. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Based on the findings of the study, the following conclusions were drawn: The study reveals that majority of the respondents' belonged to young age group and have highest percentage of married women. It also explains that most of the respondents utilized every information they got on entrepreneurial development and are willing to learn about entrepreneurship information continually. However, Securing working capital, lack of transportation, lack of information and delay of payment, high cost of labor and high cost of inputs are major constraints faced by rural women farmers in the study area. Conclusively, it can be deduced from the study that most of the women farmers are familiar with what entrepreneurship is, but they are hindered, hampered, and incapacitated due to the above mentioned constraints. It is therefore recommended that Rural women farmers should be introduced to the internet, in order to get more information on entrepreneurship. And also, Various tiers of government should create programs that will catalyze entrepreneurial development with the aid entrepreneur information (with special focus for women) in the rural areas.