Determinants of Vulnerability to Poverty among Rice Farmers: A Case Study of Nasarawa Rice Hub

Subject Areas : Rural and Agricultural Sociology

Babatunde  Olanrewaju ¹ (Department of Agricultural Economics and Farm Management, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, P.M.B 1515, Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria)
Opeyemi  Gbenga ² (2Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension,Faculty of Agriculture, Kogi State University Anyigba, P.M.B 1008, Anyigba, Kogi State, Nigeria, Corresponding Authors Email: [e-mail])
Zubair  Idris ³ (Department of Agricultural Economics and Farm Management, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, P.M.B 1515, Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria)

Received: 2019-02-12 Accepted : 2019-05-30 Published : 2019-03-01

Keywords: Vulnerability, poverty, farmers, Determinants,

Abstract :

The study examined factors influencing rice farmers` vulnerability to poverty, identified coping strategies employed by farmers to manage livelihood shocks that predisposes them to poverty and determined the impact of poverty on rice production in Nasarawa state, Nigeria. The study was carried out in Nasarawa rice hubs Nasarawa state. A two stage sampling technique was employed to select 121 rice farming households across 5 communities. Data was collect using questionnaire and personal interview and the data was analysed using household vulnerability index (HVI),fussy set analysis, regression analysis(ordered probit and OLS) as well as descriptive statistics. HVI analysis reveals that 16.5% of the households has low vulnerability to poverty, 65.3 has moderate vulnerability to poverty while 18.2% has high vulnerability to poverty. Ordered probit regression result reveals that access to information, number of shocks (idiosyncratic and covariate) exposed to by households, and years of farming significantly affect household vulnerability to poverty in the studied area. The study therefore, concludes that majority of the households are moderately vulnerable to poverty which implies majority of the household has been affected so hard that they need rapid-response poverty alleviation strategies to be liberated from poverty. It was also shown that rice farmers in the study area rely majorly on help from friends and relatives, also borrowed food in order to cope with livelihood threats. The study also concludes that Fulani herds men crisis, communal crisis, flood and poor linker roads are the major challenges facing farmers in the studied area.

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