Journal of Food, Agriculture and Environment

Poverty and its determinants among farming households in West Africa: Empirical evidence from Borno State, Nigeria

Author(s):

Paul S. Amaza ^1*, Adediji O. Adejobi ², Patrick V. Kwaghe ³

Recieved Date: 2008-05-18, Accepted Date: 2008-09-05

Abstract:

The study examines the extent of poverty and its determinants among farming households in Borno State of Nigeria. Primary data were obtained from 1,998 farming households using well-structured questionnaires in 2004. Mean monthly per adult equivalent household expenditure poverty line was used to characterize the households into poor and non-poor, while Tobit regression model was used to determine the factors associated with poverty experienced by the farming households in the study area. About 67% of the households were categorized as poor. The Tobit regression analysis reveals that 15 out of the 23 household livelihood-related variables included in the model had their coefficients significant at between (P<0.01) and (P<0.10), representing about 63 percent of the variables. The Tobit result reveals that increases in farm size, amount of credit, agricultural production diversification and extent of agricultural output commercialization contributed to reduce the poverty level among farming households. Poverty intensity is high among households having large size, high child dependency ratio and expenditure on education. Therefore, policy measures should aim at enhancing the rural farmers’ access to improved agricultural inputs, land and credit; thereby increasing agricultural productivity and production so as to meet home consumption and generate an increased surplus for the market.

Keywords:

Poverty, farming households, poverty intensity determinants, elasticity, agricultural production, diversification, savanna, Borno State, Nigeria

---

Journal: Journal of Food, Agriculture and Environment
Year: 2008
Volume: 6
Issue: 3&4
Category: Environment
Pages: 406-411

---

Full text for Subscribers

---

Information:

Note to users

The requested document is freely available only to subscribers/registered users with an online subscription to the Journal of Food, Agriculture & Environment. If you have set up a personal subscription to this title please enter your user name and password. All abstracts are available for free.

Article purchasing

If you like to purchase this specific document such as article, review or this journal issue, contact us. Specify the title of the article or review, issue, number, volume and date of the publication. Software and compilation, Science & Technology, all rights reserved. Your use of this website details or service is governed by terms of use. Authors are invited to check from time to time news or information.

---

Purchase this Article:   20 Purchase PDF Order Reprints for 15

---

Share this article :