Rural Poverty In Nigeria Research Articles

Poverty status of rural households in Nigeria: a gendered perspective

PurposePoverty is endemic in rural Nigeria and gender disparity in access to productive resources is a major cause of poverty in the area. Poverty status of rural households along gender line was, therefore, investigated in this study.Design/methodology/approachPanel data from 2010/2011 (wave 1) and 2015/2016 (wave 3) of the Living Standard Measurement Survey (LSMS) for Nigeria were used for the study. Data were analysed using Foster, Greer and Thorbecke (FGT) poverty indices and binomial panel logistic model.FindingsPoverty measures for women-led households in farming activities were 58.5, 27.8 and 17.1%; men-led farming households had 59.8, 27.4 and 16.3% gender-neutral had 56.8%, 27 and 16.9% in the first panel. Poverty indices increased in the women-led and men-led farming households in the second panel. Poverty incidence was higher amongst farming households than the non-farming counterparts. Correlates of poverty status differ amongst the gender-groups were household size, farming, tertiary education, access to credit and geographical locations.Originality/valueGender disparity is perceived in this study along the line of differences in gender composition of rural households. A gender-blind approach to poverty alleviation programmes likely will not enhance reduced poverty in rural Nigeria. Closing the gender poverty gap will ensure achievement of the first sustainable development goal of poverty eradication.

Spatial Profiles and Determinants of Multidimensional Energy Poverty in Rural Nigeria

This study aims at examining the multidimensional energy poverty (MEP) and its determinants in six geo-political zones of rural Nigeria. We utilized the 2018/2019 Nigeria Living Standard Survey (NLSS) data collected by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in collaboration with World Bank. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Multidimensional Energy Poverty Index (MEPI), Analysis Of Variance (ANOVA), Tobit model, and Pearson correlation. The analysis showed that over 90% of the respondents live below the MEP line with the North East (NE) and South West (SW) having the highest (98.7%) and lowest (82%) respectively. The intensity of MEP at the national level was 0.330. The results of the multidimensional energy poverty index (MEPI) which stood at 0.31 in the country, was highest in the NE (0.345) and lowest in the SW (0.279). Although with varying strength of relationships across the zones, cooking, lighting, and kitchen appliances are notable dimensions that have a significant positive correlation with aggregate MEP. Education, sex, and occupation of the household head as well as household size and monthly expenditure are determinants of the MEP in the country. There are implications for zone-specific and women-focused interventions relating to clean energy and access to kitchen appliances.

THE ROLE OF NON GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS IN POVERTY ALLEVIATION AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA

The aim of the study is to assess the contributions of Aisha Buhari Foundation in the alleviation of rural poverty in Nigeria. Population explosion was identified as one of the problems confronting poverty alleviation efforts in Nigeria. It goes without saying that uncontrolled population growth magnifies the problem of poverty and naturally, renders insignificant, poverty alleviation efforts. To check this menace, Nigerians, especially the rural folk should be enlightened on the imperative of birth control. The assistance of Aisha Buhari Foundation, other non-governmental organizations, institutions and government at all levels is needed in this regard. The rural folk need to be told that inasmuch as children are gifts from God, giving birth to as many children as God is willing to give one would merely compound the problem of poverty. Affordable family planning facilities should be provided for Nigerians especially the rural folk. Only when this is done can we hope to control the country’s population which according to the UNDP, is projected to grow to 230 million, that is double that present figure by 20152 (a mere 15 years away). Education is a very useful weapon against poverty. Ironically, poverty is a major weapon against education. In other words, poverty limits the ability of individuals to acquire education. Due to escalating costs of education in the face of dwindling income, many children are withdrawn from school by their parents to indulge in street hawking and unskilled labour. This tendency no doubt helps to compound the problem of poverty. Poverty alleviation efforts in Nigeria will receive a boost if educational opportunities are expanded to benefit as many people as possible.

DETERMINANTS OF MULTIDIMENSIONAL POVERTY TRANSITIONS AMONG RURAL HOUSEHOLDS IN NIGERIA

Despite the progress in poverty reduction globally, millions of people are either near or living in severe multidimensional poverty in Nigeria. This study examined multidimensional poverty transitions in rural Nigeria, employing the Alkire and Foster measure of multidimensional poverty, Markov model of poverty transitions and the multinomial logistic regression model for analysis. Results showed that multidimensional poverty among rural households in Nigeria was mainly chronic (46.5%) while education and assets dimensions contributed most to the incidence and severity of multidimensional poverty among the households respectively. Educational and marital status, household size and number of assets owned influenced transient poverty while tertiary education, household size and number of assets owned influenced chronic poverty. The enactment and implementation of relevant laws and policies against the marginalization of the poor and vulnerable with respect to ownership of assets and intensification of efforts and incentives, aimed at encouraging human capital development, is key in the fight against poverty in rural Nigeria.

Rural Poverty, Participation and Poverty-Reduction Strategies in Nigeria

Despite Nigeria’s abundant oil, gas and other natural resources, the experience of the majority of its population in rural areas has been, and still is, one of abject poverty. Nigerians remain poor because of the failure of successive governments to manage the country’s enormous wealth effectively. Although poverty is equally widespread in urban areas, poor economic and social policies have aggravated the extent of poverty in rural areas. This article utilises a historical analysis technique to examine the nature of rural poverty in Nigeria and also the failure of the government’s poverty-reduction strategies. Information was sourced from previous studies, reports of government agencies and institutions, the World Bank, and relevant journals articles. The researchers have found that the limited understanding of the nature of poverty, and the failure to engage the rural poor and the wider community in decision-making processes, especially relating to poverty analysis, have been important factors that have contributed to the failure of past poverty-reduction strategies in the country. The researchers come to the conclusion that involving the poor is placing them at the centre of their own development process.

HELPING PEASANT FARMERS IN NIGERIA THROUGH AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVES: LESSONS FROM JAPAN AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVE MODEL

Japan agricultural cooperative known as JA in Japan is the citadel of small farmers’ livelihoods. For almost 60 years, JA was the driving force behind small farmer-supportive policy in Japan. The reverse is the case in Nigeria where agricultural cooperatives are not tailored towards organized support; therefore Nigerian farmers face the brunt of the market, policy and economy. While there are emerging challenges for JA, its relevance remains undaunted in marketing, farm guidance, credit, insurance, and subsidy among others. The paper examines the need for adapting the JA agricultural cooperative model in Nigeria and the needed institutional contexts. Alleviating rural poverty in Nigeria requires building farmers capacity through cohesive farmers’ organizations that will act as channels for introducing agricultural technologies for production and processing, gaining access to quality inputs, credit and technology, reduce farm gate losses and enhance harmers access to market and generally improving their capacity for negotiating better deals in the political system and gaining more control over their socioeconomic position in the Nigerian social system. The JA model of agricultural cooperatives is a relevant case study to building an organization that would meet farmers’ needs and help in agricultural development.

English

This paper evaluates the ex post impact of farmers’ adoption of Root and Tubers Expansion Program (RTEP) on yield, crop income and poverty in rural Nigeria by means of primary data collected from 161 households in 3 local government areas in South West Nigeria. Using FGT poverty measures and propensity score matching techniques the study found that poverty incidence is higher by about 23% among non beneficiaries than among the beneficiaries of RTEP. Net yield per hectare increased by a range of about 13.00 to 18.52  metric tons while net crop income per hectare increased by a range of about ₦39,705 to ₦42,133 ($198-211) thus, reducing poverty by about 5 to 20%. The factors that positively influenced the probability of adoption of RTEP were:  years of education, social capital, farm size and access to improved planting materials while planting of two or three root crops negatively influenced the probability of adoption of RTEP. Therefore, policy options that favor increased education, farmer group membership and access to improved inputs are recommended to encourage RTEP adoption and further reduce poverty among farmers.   Key words: Root and tuber crops, beneficiaries, poverty, adoption, logit. &nbsp

Livelihood, Agro Ecological Zones and Poverty in Rural Nigeria

Poverty and vulnerability being observed as rural phenomenon in sub-Sahara African and that majority of the rural poor in Nigeria derive their livelihood from subsistence agriculture, are popular research findings across the country. However, the extent of effect of the interaction of agriculture as a livelihood with agro-ecological variation on poverty status of rural households is not verified in literature as at now. This formed the focus of this paper. The nation-wide cross-sectional data of the Harmonized Nigerian Living Standard Survey (HNLSS, 2009) data was used along with the FGT class of poverty measure and Ordered Probit regression model in the study to achieve the objective. The result reveals that poverty headcount was highest in Sahel zone and least in the Forest zone. The result shows a gradual decline in all the three poverty measures down the agro-ecological horizon. Farming households contributed 84.5% of the total poor households in the rural communities in Nigeria. The Sudan-Sahel farming households contributed the largest proportion of the poor rural households. The study observed that interaction between farming and agro-ecological variation have significant effect on households’ poverty. Among recommendations emanating from this study is that agro-ecological-specific farm support policies/services should be provided to rural households in order to enhance their welfare.

Utilization of Adult and Non-Formal Education Programs in Combating Rural Poverty in Nigeria

The purpose of this paper was to examine the concept of poverty and its causes in Nigeria and to analyze how adult and non-formal education programs can be utilized to reduce rural poverty in Nigeria. In spite of Nigeria's affluence in human and material resources, it is classified among countries with high level of poverty. Incidentally, the incidence of poverty in Nigeria assumes wider dimensions in rural areas where larger proportion of the population (about 70%) reside mainly as subsistence farmers, fishermen and women, retail traders, herdsmen, palm wine tappers, the aged and hunters whose cultural and occupational affiliations do not encourage them to migrate. The incidence of rural poverty in Nigeria is attributed to lack of adequate education/illiteracy, subsistence farming, protracted illness due to inadequate medical care services, lack of employment opportunities, and failure of government to provide basic social amenities. To ameliorate the extent and dimensions of rural poverty in particular, successive governments, over the years, have introduced various economic recovery programs, most of which failed due to official corruption, lack of proper mobilization and top-down nature of such programs/schemes. This paper advocates a revert to the use of adult and non- formal education programs to educate and train the rural poor outside the formal education system on how and what to do to come out of the stronghold of poverty. In this regard, the use of adult basic education and functional literacy, agricultural extension education, women education, health extension education and vocational skills acquisition programs are seriously indicated. It is strongly recommended that for poverty alleviation programs of government to succeed, community members particularly, the poor for whom the programs are meant, should be well mobilized as to make inputs in the planning, execution, monitoring and evaluation of such programs and schemes that concern them.

Spatial dimension of poverty in rural Nigeria

Poverty is a rural phenomenon in Nigeria. This study investigated poverty profile across geopolitical zones in rural Nigeria, using the 2003/2004 NLSS data. The result of FGT poverty decomposition shows that majority of the poor (84%) live in the rural area. Northwest zone had the highest relative contribution to incidence and depth of national rural poverty (29 and 30%, respectively) while Southwest had the least relative contribution (4 and 3% respectively). Although North-central had the highest level of severity of rural poverty (P2 = 0.1454), North-west accounted for the highest relative contribution (30%) to national rural poverty. Key words: Poverty, assets, rural, geopolitical zones, Nigeria.

Rural Development And Agricultural Extension Administration In Nigeria

This paper reviewed the wide range of policies and approaches formulated and implemented to effect agricultural and rural development in Nigeria. The paper reveals that the common feature of all the strategies is the use of institutionalized agricultural extension service, devoted principally to augment smallholder productivity by promoting the adoption of new scientific farming practices. It shows that this approach have achieved limited success due to factors related to: their lethargic attitude towards decision making, inflexibility, over centralization, lack of appropriate technology and available supplies of production inputs, lack of trained manpower, wrong role perception and performance, inadequate coordination with research and training institutions, and lack of requisite logistic supports essential to extension success. It is the belief of this paper that total eradication of rural poverty in Nigeria through the use of extension approach will be achieved only when the role of extension is properly conceived and backed with adequate staffing, effective coordination with research centers and training institutions, provision of useful technologies and requisite physical inputs, adequate financing and proper recognition that extension system does not offer utopian solution to agricultural and rural modernization. It is only one of the numerous needed inputs, and that it's effect is in the nature of a catalytic ingredient of the modernization mix. Global Approaches to Extension Practice Vol.1(1) 2005: 31-46

Human Capital, Capabilities and Poverty in Rural Nigeria

Earlier studies in investigating the determinants of poverty in Nigeria have n0t explicitly considered the importance of capabilities as determinants of poverty despite the fact that capabilities dictate the state of deprivation and poverty among households. This paper examines the link between human capitol, capabilities, and poverty in the rural sector of the Nigerian economy. The study uses data from the 1996 General Household Survey (GHS) conducted by the Federal Office of Statistics, The analysis indicates that poverty is widespread in rural Nigeria and probit regression estimates emphasize the significant effects of human capital and capabilities in determining poverty status of rural households in Nigeria. These findings, therefore, suggest the need for a conscious effort at the policy level to redress poverty by increasing the human capital of individuals through provision of adequate education and other social sector services to individuals especially in rural areas.

Poverty Reduction in Rural Nigeria through Targeting Approach and Legislations

The purpose of this study was to assess the determinants of poverty and legislative efforts of government to combat absolute poverty in rural Nigeria. Data collection relied on the use of participatory approaches such as Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA), Stakeholder analysis, and Participatory Action Learning (PLA). One hundred and twenty seven communities from Imo, Rivers and Bayelsa States were involved in the data collection. Indicators of poverty and their measurements such as socioeconomic indicators, perceptions of the people, government's policies and legislations were identified. The study concluded that although there are increasing incidences of poverty in Nigeria, effective and concerted efforts such as legislation and “targeting” approach to poverty alleviation would not only reduce poverty but would eventually eliminate it in the country. Int. J. Agric. Rural Dev. , 2003, 4: 124-130