Rural livelihood and Poverty in Oyo State, Nigeria by O.A. Adewusi (2005IFRGA 01)

The study investigates the rural livelihood assets, activities and strategies with respect to poverty in Oyo State. The determinants of livelihood diversification were also identified. Primary data was collected through a field survey of 259 rural households. Descriptive statistics, FGT (1984) and the binary logit model were used to analyze the data.

The result shows that about 76.8 percent and 70.6 percent of the rural households engaged in non-farm diversified livelihood and those practicing core agriculture respectively have access to credit facilities. Also, majority (94.6 percent) of the rural households belong to at least one member in a local institution. The result further shows that 56 percent of the rural households are engaged in crop production only while 34.8 percent diversified their crop production with non-farm activities. The mean per capita household monthly expenditure for rural areas of Oyo state was N5,369.3657. The moderate rural poverty line was N3,579.58 while the core rural poverty line was N1,787.99. The overall poverty incidence is 0.46, which is slightly below average. About 67.7 percent and 51.9 percent of households that diversified into non-farm activities and core agriculture respectively were above the poverty level. Seven variables are significant in the logit model. These are gender, years of formal education, access to electricity, access to improved seed, access to veterinary services, distance to the nearest tarred road and access to formal credit facilities.

The study recommends the need to invest more on human capital assets in order to enhance rural livelihood diversification and thus increase the variance of rural source of income. In order to reduce rural poverty, intensification of non-farm activities should be an integral part of rural development policy. Also, rural infrastructures, more specifically electrification, should be intensified to enhance rural development.

Educational Risk factors among Farming Households in Oyo and Ogun States of Nigeria by O.I.Y. Ajani (2005IFRGA02)

This study was carried out to examine the risks faced by children in the farming households particularly in the area of education in Oyo and Ogun States of the South Western Nigeria. Sample size of 300 farming households and 264 children aged between 6 to 19 years was obtained by means of a multi stage stratified random sampling technique. Results analyzed by descriptive statistics, probit and logit Models. The mean age of the household head was 47 years for the father and 42 years for, the mother, 84.1 percent of the household head had food crop farming as their major occupation. The mean monthly incomes of the mother, father and total household income were N15, 584.47, N23, 765.91, and N15, 584.98 respectively. The mean household size and number of children were 8 and 5 persons respectively. The mean age of children between the age group 6 to 19 years was 12.5 years; and the mean expenditure on their schooling was N17, 394.32 per session. The risk factors that predispose a child to the probability of not schooling are high cost of schooling evidenced by cost of textbooks, school fees, school uniform, school bag, school sandals and. writing materials cost. The various evidence of educational risks (ex-post) measured in the study include: unavailability of relevant books, non payment! timely payment of school fees, school accessories like bags, sandals, uniforms, writing materials to mention a few.

The probit model used to determine the factors that affect the probability of schooling or enrolment of the children revealed that individual child variables, household variables, parental variables and composition of the household variables all have significant direct and indirect relationships with the probability of schooling.

The logit model used to determine the probability of withdrawal among the children revealed two variables, the religion of the household head and the class of the child as having significant and direct relationship with the frequency of drop out (withdrawal) among the children. Expenditure on schooling was also significant, but had a direct relationship with the schooling of the children.

Keywords: educational risks, dropout rate, expenditure on schooling, farming households

Rural Employment Promotion in Southern Nigeria by O.D. Kolawole (2005IFRGA 03)

This research identified crucial factors influencing rural employment promotion (REP) in Southern Nigeria. The specific objectives of the project were to describe and analyse the socio-.economic characteristics (of rural women and men), which influence REP in Southern Nigeria; describe and analyse the institutional, ecological and cultural variables promoting .employment generation in the study area; estimate/determine crucial factors, which could influence REP; identify viable avenues for rapid REP in the study area; and recommend suggestion to government and other donor agencies on the implementation of REP activities, based on the findings of the study.

A multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select 60 rural communities in Southern Nigeria thus: About 25.0 percent of the 17 states (which translates to about 3 States) were purposively selected based on the ecology of the region. Therefore, one riverine State was selected out of the three. From the three selected states (Ebonyi, Ekiti and Rivers), about 25.0 percent of the rural Local Government Areas (LGAs) was randomly selected. From the selected LGAs in each of the States, 20 rural communities were proportionately and purposively selected for the survey exercise, based on the number of communities in each LGA. Also, about 100 respondents were, therefore, proportionately sampled from the 20 communities in each of the States, based on the population of each selected community. In all, 300 interviewees were sampled and interviewed in Southern Nigeria using structured and unstructured interview schedules and Focus Group Discussion (FGD). Primary data were collected through survey method. Test-retest method was employed in determining the consistency/reliability of the instrument in late February and early March 2005. Simple descriptive statistical techniques such as frequency counts, percentage, measures of central tendencies (mean and standard deviation), Gantt, pie and bar charts etc. were used to describe and summarise the data collected. Inferential statistics such as Pearson product-moment correlation, regression, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and factor analysis were also employed in making deductions. Qualitative data (non-parametric variables) obtained from Focus Group Discussion (FGD) were analysed using ethnographic analysis. Also, other non­parametric variables were analysed Using chi-square (χ 2 ) and contingency table (C) to determine the strength of associations between some variables and REP.

It was obvious from the results that over 50.0 percent of the variables that had some degrees of relationship with REP were identified in the study. Of importance are respondents' socio-economic variables (such as household size, education level, income, external orientation/cosmopoliteness, contact with government agencies, association membership, information source(s) and farm size. Availability of infrastructural facilities (such as electricity supply, motorable roads, and bank availability) was found crucial to REP. Also, institutional influence as reflected in government, family and community support was found to enhance the promotion of rural employment in Southern Nigeria. The strength of relationship and association of project characteristics (project type/orientation and its capital outlay) depicts the crucial role of this singular factor in the process of achieving the goals of REP in the study area. The above claims are, in a way, reflected in the identification of certain crucial factors, which influenced REP. Essentially; five major factors were extracted in the process of variable reduction in the analysis of data. These are the socio-economic attributes of the respondent ( λ = 2.328), institutional influence on his activities ( λ = 2.177), the ecology of his immediate environment ( λ = 1.390), his financial and knowledge acquisition ( λ = 1.750) and the infrastructure ( λ = 1.283) at his disposal for appropriation in the process of establishing a cottage industry for production and or service purpose(s). Analysis of variance (ANOVA) clearly indicated that there were no significant differences in the education level and sources of information of rural people in Ebonyi, Ekiti and Rivers States in Southern Nigeria. There was also a significant difference in REP activities in the three States, too. However, all other socio-economic, ecological, infrastructural and institutional variables were significantly different in the three States. The Probit analysis suggested that education, farm size, availability of banking institutions, family support, production and service-oriented business ventures were the predictors of EEP in the study area. Also, Chi-square analysis showed that diversification in terms of the combination of both production and service ventures had a relatively stronger association with employment promotion as compared with either production or service alone. Provision of basic and functional services (such as education, health care, water, electricity and motorable roads).and refocusing of empowering activities, among others are vital for rural employment promotion drive in Southern Nigeria.

Determinants of Forces Behind Poverty and Coping Strategies in Selected Areas in Nigeria by N.T. Meludu (2005IFRGA04)

Understanding poverty and its consequences, especially on how to alleviate the status of the chronically poverty trapped individuals and communities is a major policy concern. Therefore, this project determined the forces behind poverty and suggested policy focuses that will make the poor to aspire for better and secured living standard. The project focused on 294 male and female adults in randomly selected households stratified between urban, city slum and rural areas within South-east and South-west Nigeria. A well structured questionnaire with open and closed ended items was used for data collection. The data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics.

Nearly all the agricultural activities are done in all the locations as sources of income. However, the income generated from these activities is highest in the urban areas and by many respondents. The level of severity of the forces behind poverty led to some of the identified causes of poverty. All the causes have impact on the respondents not being able to meet up with the following livelihood activities such as not able to feed the family, not able to pay children's school fees, can not buy clothing for the family, cannot pay rent, cannot afford good health care for the family, cannot pay social network dues, cannot take family to outing and difficulty in paying for transportation. The result revealed the percentage of respondents classified as core poor in the rural area is still high (70 %) while the percentage of those in moderately poor group is reducing having only 11 percent. The percentage of the respondents in none poor category increased (17%) when compared with previous research. The respondents residing in the city slum recorded 89 percent core poor, four percent moderately poor and six percent none poor. The degree of poverty in urban area is classified as having less than half (48.5 %) of the total population as core poor, 12 percent as moderately poor and 39.4 percent as none poor. The result showed 55, 52 and 44 percent of the respondents in urban, city slum and rural areas respectively have average perception on effect of government policy on alleviating their poverty situation. Very few (10, 3 and 7 %) of the respondents in the three locations have high perception that government policies can redeem them from poverty traps.

Source Income Determinants and Inequality Among Rural Households in Kogi State, Nigeria by B.T. Omonona (2005IFRGA 05)

This study focused on the analysis of rural income sources and inequality in Kogi state, Nigeria. A two stage sampling technique was used to collect primary data from 210 rural households through well-structured questionnaires. Three analytical techniques are used to achieve the objectives of the study. These are descriptive statistics, source decomposition of Gini coefficient and the Tobit regression analysis.  

The results reveal that that despite that the Gini coefficient of income inequality in the study area is 0.4843, there are varying levels of inequalities in the sources of per capita income of the households: non farm wage employment (0.7657) non farm self employment (0.7385), farm wage employment (0.8881) and farm self employment (0.4138). The contributions of the sources or income to total per capita income are: non-farm wage employment (37.45 percent), non farm self employment (25.05 percent), farm wage employment (6.46 percent) and farm self employment (21.04 percent).

The Tobit regression results show that as the area of land cultivated increases, more income is generated from farm self-employment while reducing the income from farm wage employment, non farm wage employment and non farm self employment. Also, households whose heads are females are positively associated with income from non­ farm self-employment, those who are headed by males are positively associated with income from non-farm wage employment and farm employment (farm and non farm). The higher the years of education of the household heads, the higher is the incentive to obtain more income from non farm wage employment, hut the lower is the incentive to get income from both wage and self employment in farming. Further, access to public infrastructure (electricity) by households tends to reduce the proportion of total per capita income made from farm wage employment. An increase in the amount of agricultural loan available to a household will increase the share of income from self-employment, be it farm or non-farm while reducing the share of income from non-farm wage employment.

The provision of timely and adequate credit to the self-employed groups (farming and non farming) is very crucial as it helps in breaking the vicious cycle of poverty.

Keywords : Income sources, Determinants, Inequality, Rural Households.

Farming Households' Vulnerability to Risk in the Northern Region of Oyo State, Nigeria by O.A. Oni (2005IFRGA06)

This study assessed the extent of farming household vulnerability to risk in the Northern region of Oyo state. The multistage random sampling procedure was used in selecting 107 respondents from total sample frame of farmers supplied by the Agricultural Development Programme of Oyo state. The main analytical technique in this paper was the Ordinary Least square Estimates. Results that emanated from the paper shows clear evidence that employment shock have significant effect on food expenditure than non-food expenditure while wage arrears have no significant effect on food and non-food consumptions.

The null hypothesis was therefore rejected, thereby suggesting that farming household in the study area do not enjoy complete insurance with respect to food consumption and are thereby vulnerable to economic shocks. Further empirical evidences from the study shows that partial insurance and risk sharing exist within rural communities but are lacking among the urban communities. Findings also revealed household working status, age of household head, Educational Status of household head as key observable socioeconomic variables that determine the extent to which household are vulnerable to risk or economic shocks.

Agricultural Intensification and Efficiency of Food Production in South Western Nigeria by A.S. Oyekale (2005IFRGA07)

Social Capital and Household Welfare in Kwara State , Nigeria by S.A. Yusuf (2005IFRGA09)

In spite of the growing literature on the importance of social capital in welfare analysis, little is known about the impact of this form of capital on welfare in Nigeria. This study examined the effects of social capital on household welfare in Kwara State, Nigeria.

The data for the study were collected from 315 households spread across six local government areas (LGAs) of the state using probability proportionate to size of the registered institutions in the LGAs and taken into consideration the rural, semi-rural and urban nature of the of the areas. Data analysis was done using measures of central tendency, social capital indices and regression technique.

Average head of household -heads stood at 44.3 years with about 8 years of formal education. Household size was 7 members with monthly per capita income of N4, 184.40. However, rural households had 64.9% of average household per capita income while both semi-rural and urban households earned 1.6% and 26.9% respectively above the state average. About 49.9% of the per capita expenditure of N3,059.52 was spent on food. Across the state, household own production constituted 31.4 % of the total food expenditure. This was higher for rural households at 43.7%. Membership of households in local level institutions averaged 6 with urban households belonging to one less institution compared with their rural and semi-rural counterparts. Households attended two out of every three meetings and had moderate level of active participation in decision making of 57.5%. The index of heterogeneity at 29.1 indicated low level of diversity of the associations. Monthly cash contribution was highest for members in religious associations amounting to N1574.53 followed by cooperative associations at N1,015.03. Along with the demographic variables, aggregate social capital had positive and significant effect on welfare status of households. A one unit increase in social capital would increase household per capital expenditure by 0.15%. Disaggregation of social capital into its components showed that its effect on welfare was traceable to membership and active participation in decision making of households in associations. Social capital was truly exogenous to household's welfare with no reverse causality.

The study concluded that social capital positively affected household welfare.

Keywords: Social capital, household welfare, heterogeneity index, endogeneity and Kwara State