EVALUATION OF POVERTY LEVEL AMONG SMALL HOLDER FARMERS IN SOME SELECTED LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN ONDO STATE, NIGERIA.

Abstract

The broad objective of this study is to evaluate poverty level among small holder farmers in some selected Local Government Area of Ondo State. Specific objectives are to examine the socio-economic characteristics of small holder farmers in some selected Local Government Areas of Ondo State; examine the effect of poverty on the welfare of small holder farmers in the study area; identify various sources of income among small holder farmers in the study area and analyze the poverty level of small holder farmers in the study area. Primary data were collected with the use of multi-stage sampling technique . In the first stage, three (3) Local Government Areas were selected; Akure North Local Government Area, Ifedore Local Government Area and Idanre Local Governme1nt Area. In the second stage, two communities were selected from each of the three Local Government Areas making a total of six (6) communities .At the third stage and the final stage, forty (40) respondents were randomly selected from each of the communities making a total of two hundred and forty (240) respondents. Descriptive statistics such as mean,median,mode, standard deviation, frequency distribution , percentage and pie-chart .Foster-Greer –Thorbecke index were used to analyse the poverty level of respondents while Gini Coeffient was used to determine income distribution among respondents. The result of the research revealed that 27.9% of the respondents belonged to the active age of 30-39 years and the mean age was 44 years. 69.6% of respondents were male while 30.4 % of the respondents were female. The study also revealed that 69.2% of the respondents were married while the remaining 30.8% were single.81.7% of respondents were literate.12.9% of respondents were financed by Credit and Thrift Cooperative Societies.39.6 % had farm size of 1-2.9ha. The result also showed that 47.5% of respondents used family and hired labour. 18.8% of respondents had =N=360,012- N480,000 annual income from farming activities. About 32.9% of respondents had an average distance of 1km to health facilities. Also, since 69.6% of respondents were male there is possibility of more production .This is because farming is energy consuming and most time male farmers had more energy than female farmers .Foster-Greer- Thorbecke (FGT) indices was used to determine the poverty level of the respondent. The result obtained showed that the incidence, depth and severity of poverty are 0.24166666, 0.10206553 and 0.05702688 respectively. Poverty increases as we move up the age ladder while household size and poverty were positively related due to the fact that the more the number of household size the less the cost of labour and also the more the output from farming. FGT measure showed that the poverty depth, poverty incidence and poverty severity in the three (3) Local Government selected were 0.24166666, 0.10206553 and 0.05702688 respectively.