ANALYSIS OF LAND MANAGEMENT PRACTICES AND POVERTY STATUS OF CASSAVA BASED FARMERS IN EKITI STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

This study attempts to analyse Land Management Practices and Poverty Status of Cassava Based Farmers in Ekiti State, Nigeria using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The study described the socio-economic characteristics, identified the Land Management Practices (LMP), examined the poverty status; analysed the factors that influence the choice of main LMP; examined the effect of poverty status on the adoption and rate of adoption of LMP; and analysed the major constraints to the adoption of the land management practices by the cassava based farmers in the study area. Multistage sampling procedure was employed to select 120 respondents for the study. Primary data were collected through the administration of a well-structured questionnaire. The analytical tools employed were descriptive statistics, Foster, Greer Thorbecke (FGT) Poverty index, Multinomial Logit Model and Double Hurdle Model. The results revealed that the cassava farmers in the study area were in their active age with a mean age of 43.50years, married, with low level of formal education and mainly male. The farmers’ were small scale farmers with a mean farm size of about 2.6ha. The result revealed that the proportion of the respondents who earned less than the value of poverty line was 38.3% while those who earned at least the value of the poverty line was 61.67% of the sampled households. The Multinomial Logit showed that the adoption of land management practices increased by 4.67% as the age of a farmer increases. In the first double hurdle the farm size was significant at 5%. As the farm size increases, there is tendency for the farmer to lack the required funds to adopt certain land management practices due to the size of the farm. The second double hurdle in respect of the rate of use of LMP in the study indicated that being poor was positive at1% this decrease the rate of adoption of LPM in the study area. 75% of the household claimed to be constrained with high cost of improved LMP. It is therefore recommended that government should strengthen and sustain E-wallet mechanism policy in the distribution of farm inputs.