Abstract
This study examined the households’ poverty status among crop farmers in Kaduna State. Multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select 242 farmers for this study. Data were collected through using structured questionnaire with the help of trained enumerators. Descriptive and inferential statistics such as tobit regression and Foster, Greer and Thorbecke (FGT) model was employed in this study. The results showed that the mean age of the respondents was 45 years and were married, mean household size of the farmers was 11 persons, and about (80.6%) had formal education. The poverty situation of the farmers revealed that 51% were poor and the strategies adopted by the farmers to combat poverty were mostly through diversification into commercial farming, increased personal savings and involvement in non-farming activities. Tobit regression analysis revealed that age, household and income negatively influences the poverty status of the farmers, statistically significant at 1%, this implied that, poverty is concentrated among households in the study area. Major constraints encountered by the crop farmers, include high cost of inputs, inadequate credit facilities and inadequate market linkages. In conclusion, poverty incidence had a negative and significant effect on rural crop farmers. It was recommended that farmers should form cooperative societies to access micro loan; farmer should be linked to the urban market through extension agent and media to attract good value for their crops. Government and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) should make farm inputs readily available at a subsidized rate
Highlights
Agriculture in Nigeria has been the most important sector of the economy from history and a basis for rural employment, food production and major export earnings before the discovery of black gold (Oni, 2008)
The assertion made above was based on the evidence that as at pre-independence to independence little was known of petroleum as a major source of revenue for Nigeria
The role of increased productivity of cereal, root and tuber crop farms is no longer debatable but a great necessity in order to reverse the productivity of small farms in Nigeria, since cereal, root and tuber crops have the potential for bridging the food gap, as they have been discovered from research that famine rarely occur where these crops are widely grown (Nweke et al.,2012) Studies have been conducted on the determinant of poverty among rural farmers in Nigerian population
Summary
Agriculture in Nigeria has been the most important sector of the economy from history and a basis for rural employment, food production and major export earnings before the discovery of black gold (Oni, 2008). The role of increased productivity of cereal, root and tuber crop farms is no longer debatable but a great necessity in order to reverse the productivity of small farms in Nigeria, since cereal, root and tuber crops (maize, sorghum, millet, rice, wheat, cassava,yam and irish potatoes) have the potential for bridging the food gap, as they have been discovered from research that famine rarely occur where these crops are widely grown (Nweke et al.,2012) Studies have been conducted on the determinant of poverty among rural farmers in Nigerian population These include Oladimeji et al (2014), Simpa 2014, Adamu and Michael, (2019). It describes the socio-economic characteristics of crop farmers, examine the poverty status and strategies adopted in mitigating incidence of poverty among crop farmers in the study area; and identify the constraints faced by crop farmers
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