DETERMINANTS OF POVERTY IN FARMING HOUSEHOLDS IN OYO STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study aim at revealing the determinants of poverty in rural farming household in Oyo State. Simple random sampling technique was employed to select 100 farming household to source information to achieve the objective of the study. Data were collected through the use of a structured questionnaire and interview schedule. The collected data were subjected to various statistical tools such as percentages, means, tables, poverty ratios and regression analysis. The result of socioeconomic characteristics of the respondents revealed that 54% of the respondents were male with 48% of them married. Furthermore, the poverty line of ? 427.14 per person per day obtained was a reflection of limited resources among the farming households in the study area. The results tend to suggest problems of food insecurity among poor farming households. The determinants of poverty were age of the household head which has negative sign and significant at 5%, marital status was positive and significant at 1% while household size was negative and significant at 1%. These factors significantly affected poverty which was in line with apriori expectations. The study recommended the need to control large households in Nigeria as it leads to increase in poor welfare by way of introduction of birth control measures.