EFFECTS OF HIV/AIDS AMONG MEN, WOMEN AND YOUTH IN CROP PRODUCTION OF JEMA’A AND GIWA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREAS OF KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA

This study was conducted, to analyze the effects of HIV/AIDS among men, women and youth in crop production in Jema’a and Giwa local government areas of Kaduna state, Nigeria. Jema’a and Giwa were purposively selected due to the prevalence of HIV/AIDS and the youth and women are predominantly crop farmers. A sample size of 192 respondents was randomly and proportionately selected for the study. Structured questionnaire was used to elicit relevant data from the respondents. Percentages and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to analyze the data. The results showed that women were 41.8% and youth58.2%, and 73.0% had secondary education status, about 70% of the respondents earned between N1,000.00 - N15,000.00 monthly with the mean earning of N12,595.1. The study established that about 84% of respondents agree that HIV/AIDS significantly affects their crops output and income at 5% level of significance. It was concluded that HIV/AIDS has significant economic effects on crops output and income of the respondents. It was recommended that, enlightenment campaign on abstinence should be intensified and use of condoms if abstinence is not possible should be the best alternative for this active stubborn group; provision of credit facilities and inputs should be directly delivered to the effected HIV/AIDS farmers in good time and legislation that can protect the land rights of women and children. This may help to improve the income levels of women who in a great measure contribute to crop production development in Nigeria.


INTRODUCTION
HIV/AIDS spread has brought a significant stress on the crop production affecting the crop output, income and level of living of farmers negatively which posed a major challenge to the economic development of the nation and livelihood generally (La'ah, 2003).In spite of all the efforts being put in by government at all levels as well as non-government organizations and religious bodies, there is still increased reported cases of HIV/AIDs related diseases in Kaduna State (Cross Roads, 2001) with a number of people dying daily. Little work has been done on effects of HIV/AIDS on crop production, for example, La'ah (2003) in a study titled "the Demographic and Socio-Economic Effects of HIV/AIDS in Kaduna State". Therefore, this study aims at analysing the effects of HIV/AIDS on crop production among youth and women in Jema'a and Giwa Local Government Areas of Kaduna State. Given this background, this study to analyse the effects of HIV/AIDS among youth and women in crop production in Jema'a and Giwa Local Government Areas of Kaduna State, Nigeria., with the specific objective to identify the socio-economic characteristics of HIV/AIDS infected youth and women farmers in the study area; and analyse the effects of HIV/AIDS on (crops output, income and level of living) of youth and women in the study area. Hypotheses: There is no significant difference between the effect of HIV/AIDS among youth and women of their crops output in the study area.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Primary data were collected through the use of structured questionnaire. Purposive sampling procedure was adopted because of the presence of HIV/AIDS in the study areas. The population of HIV/AIDS infected men, women and youth for Jema'a = 1,295, for Giwa = 626, i.e., a total of 1,921 victims and 192 were taken as the sample size. Data collected for the study were analysed using descriptive statistics to achieve objectives i, analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to test hypotheses i and achieved objective ii.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Socio-economic Characteristics of the Respondents
The result in Table 1 shows that out of the total respondents of 186, age 35 and above was 41.8% women, while youth who fall between the age of 16 -34 were about 58.2%. The age range reveals that the youth were the dominant group among the respondents. This agreed with the study of La'ah (2015) who opined that youth were people who are at the stage of their productive or active age (15-34 years) and can engage in any aspect of agricultural production and also active in sex relation. The results in Table 1 revealed that most of the respondents (46.3%) had household size of between 6-10 persons, 32.5% had 1-5 persons and 21.0% had 11-20 persons, therefore the mean of house hold size in this study is 7.7. This implies that the large household size has the capacity to supply some of the labour requirement on farm and the other household activities as affirmed by Solomon (2008) and Banmeke (2003). Farm size is shown in Table 1 The result revealed that 40,6% of the respondents had farm size of less than one hectare, and farming experience revealed that majority of the respondents (28.9%) had between 6-10 years farming experience, the farming experience of majority of the respondents is about 10 years and may be due to the relatively youthful status of the respondents. This finding is consistent with Igbago (2008) that work experience is not only defined by the length of time work done within the given period. The results in Table 1 indicates that 70.5% earned between N1000 -N15,000 per month; while 3.2% earned N61,000 and above per month, respectively. The mean in this study is N12, 595.1. This means that the respondents were low-income earners, their low-income level, may attribute some of them moving into prostitution especially among the females in order to earn a living. Field survey, 2020.

Effects of HIV/AIDS on Crops Output, Income and Level of Living of Youth and Women Farmers
In Giwa, 76.9% of the respondents (male, female and youth) agreed that income, females formed 8.9% of the total sample. Out of this, 70.6% agreed that HIV/AIDS affects their income, level of living and crops output, while 29.4% disagreed. Giwa males form 4.7% of total sample Youth form the majority of the respondents in Giwa with 63%. Agree that HIV/AIDS affects their income, level of living and crops output while only 24% did not agree  (Table 2.). In Jema'a, 90.5% of the respondents agreed that income, level of living and crops output were affected by HIV/AIDS, while 9.6% disagreed. In Jema'a female form 18.2% of the total sample. Out of this all (100%) agreed that HIV/AIDS affect their income, level of living and crops output. Jema'a males' form 21.4% of the total sample, 75.6% of them agreed that HIV/AIDS affects their income, level of living and crops output while 24.4% disagreed. Youth from Jema'a form 53.1% of the total sample. 93.1% of them agreed that HIV/AIDS affects their income, level of living and crops output, while 6.9% disagreed (Table 2). Also, the pooled analysis of variance on effect of HIV/AIDS on crops output result in Table 4 shows that there is a significance difference of crops output among the respondents at 5% level of significances, calculated F = 9.569 is greater than the   Table 2 shows that there is a significance difference of income among the respondents at 5% level of significances, calculated F = 4.056 is greater than the Table F = 3.33. Whereas, the pooled analysis of variance on effect of HIV/AIDS on level of living result in Table 2 shows that no significance difference in level of living exist among the respondents at 5% level of significances, calculated F = 0.21 is less than the Table F = 3.33. This study agrees with the study of Mather et al. (2004) which shows that cash, livestock, assets, total and per adult equivalent income were lower for households experiencing death in Mozambique as a result of HIV/AIDS infection.

Pooled test of the Effect of HIV/AIDS on Crops Output
The null hypothesis which states that "there is no significant difference among men, women and youth infected with HIV/AIDS in their crops output in the study area" was tested and the result is presented in Table 3. It shows that there is a significant difference among men, women and youth crops output at 5% level of significance, this is because the calculated F = 9.569 is greater than the Table F = 3.33. There are two groups of significant difference among the respondents. First, female and youth groups on one hand are not significantly different at 5% level of significance from each other. This is due to the fact that women form the bulk of the youth group. Secondly, on the other hand, the Male group is significantly different from the female and youth groups at 5% level of significance. The male average crops output was 4,516.67kg followed by youth group with average crops output of 1,152.63kg. Female group had the least average crops output, 788.20kg. Although Female and Youth groups are not significantly different, the youth group crops output is higher than that of the female group; therefore, the null hypothesis is rejected.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Based on the result of the ANOVA test on effects of the HIV/AIDS on crops output, level of living and income, it concluded that HIV/AIDS has significant economic effects on crops output and income of the respondents in the study area It was recommended that, enlightenment campaign on abstinence should be intensified and use of condoms if abstinence is not possible should be the best alternative for this active stubborn group; provision of credit facilities and inputs should be directly delivered to the effected HIV/AIDS farmers in good time and legislation that can protect the land rights of women and children. This may help to improve the income levels of women who in a great measure contribute to crop production development in Nigeria.