POVERTY DIFFERENTIALS AMONG SELECTED FARMING HOUSEHOLDS IN OSUN STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

This study investigated poverty differentials among the maize/cassava and poultry farming households. A total of 120 respondents were drawn for the study. Primary data were collected from small-scale farmers on their household characteristics across selected local government areas within the state. Data collected were analysed using Descriptive statistics, Multi-dimensional Poverty Index and Probit regression model. Findings revealed that most of the small-scale maize/cassava farmers were with modal age range of 41-50 years (43.3%). The same held for small-scale poultry farmers with modal age range of 41-50 years. The mean value of house size among the maize/cassava farmers was 5 and 6 for the small-scale poultry farmers. The mean value of income for cassava/maize small-scale farmers is =N= 332,500 and that of poultry is =N= 421,167. The male farmers constituted 80% of the cassava/maize farmers, and 85% of poultry farmers were male. The poverty headcount among the cassava/maize farmers was 0.57 and that of poultry farmers was 0.37. The poverty intensity among the maize/cassava farmers was 0.440 and 0.405 for poultry farmers. The multi-Dimension Poverty index (MPI) of the maize/cassava farmers was 0.25 and for poultry farmers, it was 0.150. Probit model estimated that education, farm size, access to credit and household income revealed a negative relationship but significant to multidimensional poverty status across the study areas. The Watt Index for maize/cassava farmers was 0.13 and for poultry farmers, it was 0.7. The study indicated high vulnerability to poverty across the study areas. The study basically revealed that, when designing poverty alleviation strategies, peculiarities and differences in farming operations should play essential roles in the process.