Poverty Status and Alleviation Strategies Adopted by Rural Households in Wushishi Local Government Area of Niger State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study examined the poverty status and alleviation strategies adopted by rural households in Wushishi Local Government Area of Niger State, Nigeria. Multi-stage sampling procedure was employed to select 140 rural households on which structured questionnaire was administered complemented with an interview schedule. Primary data collected were analysed with descriptive statistics such as frequency counts, percentages and mean, and inferential such as Probit regression. Foster, Greer and Thorbecke (FGT) model was used to determine the poverty status of the households. Findings from the study revealed that the mean age of the respondents was 43 years, mean household size was 10 people, mean farming experience was 20 years, mean farm size was 6.10 hectares and mean annual income was ₦604,381. About 93% of the respondents were males, 88.6% were married and 73.5% had formal education with a mean of 9 years in formal schooling. However, majority (97.1%) of the respondents had access to credit, while few (22.1%) of the respondents had contact with extension agents. Based on the estimated poverty line of ₦18,472.13, 45.7% of the households were found to be poor, while 54.3% were non-poor. Probit regression result revealed that household size (2.51, p<0.01), education (-4.19, p<0.01), farming experience (-1.86, p<0.10), farm size (-2.22, p<0.05), access to credit (-2.08, p<0.05) and extension contact (-2.79, p<0.01) significantly influences the likelihood of the rural household being poor. In terms of poverty alleviation strategies adopted by the rural households, crop diversification (𝑋̅= 2.46), mixed farming (𝑋̅ = 2.14) and engagement in non-farm activities (𝑋̅ = 2.09) ranked 1st, 2nd and 3rd, respectively among others. In conclusion, most of the rural households were non-poor which could be due to adoption of various poverty alleviation strategies in the study area. It was therefore recommended that extension agency should provide adequate extension services to the rural households that will help enhances poverty alleviation and boost agricultural production.