Gender Differences in Farmers' Indigenous Knowledge of Vegetables Disease Management: Implication for Artificial Intelligence-Enabled Farmers' Decision Support System

The study was carried out in Osun State, Nigeria with the aim to analyse male and female vegetable farmers’ indigenous knowledge of disease management. It specifically assessed the indigenous knowledge of male and female farmers on the symptoms, causes, curative, and preventive measures of the vegetable crop diseases. This was done with the aim to provide gender-responsive benchmark data that could enhance the effective adoption of AI-enabled decision support system for crop disease management. Structured interview schedule was used to elicit quantitative data from 106 respondents (59 males and 47 females) for the study. Descriptive statistics was used to analyse the data. Majority of the male and female farmers used indigenous knowledge in identifying the symptoms, causes, curative and preventive measures of most common vegetable crop diseases. Expert/Extension professional-based human intelligence was also a major source of information on crop disease management among the male and female farmers, but the female farmers experienced lower extension contacts than the males. Scientific study and integration of gender responsive and enabling indigenous knowledge on crop disease management into the AI-enabled farmers’ decision support system involving experts and extension professionals is recommended for effectiveness and sustainability