Strategies to improve the use of medicinal plants among rural women in Kogi state, Nigeria

This paper takes a look at the various roles of rural women in the use of medicinal plants in Kogi State, Nigeria. This is with a view to fashioning out strategies that can help to improve the involvement of rural women in the use of medicinal plants in the Study area. Five local government areas (LGAs) out of twenty one LGAs in the study area were randomly selected. Four villages were randomly selected from each of the selected LGAs to make a total of 20 villages. Ten rural women were randomly selected in each village to make a total of 200 respondents. Pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire were used to obtain information from the randomly selected women. The results of the study showed that rural women are involved in the collection, preparation, dispensing and sale of medicinal plants. Chi-square test (p< 0.05) shows that educational qualification of rural women has a significant association with their involvement in the use of medicinal plants. However chi-square test (p>0.05) shows that the income level of rural women has no significant association with their involvement in the use of medicinal plants. In view of this the following strategies were fashioned out to improve the roles of rural women in the use of medicinal plants in the study area. They include enforcement of improved ethical practices, dissemination of information to medicinal plants practitioners, promoting branding and labeling of medicinal plants and organizing workshops for medicinal plants practitioners.