scholarly journals THE ISSUE OF INCOME DIVERSIFICATION AMONG RURAL FARMING HOUSEHOLDS: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM KWARA STATE, NIGERIA

2018 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 231-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adeniyi Felix Akinrinde ◽  
Kemi Funmilayo Omotesho ◽  
Israel Ogulande

The rising incidences of poverty among rural farming families are the reason behind renewed interest in income diversification. This study determined the level of income diversification; identified alternative income sources; examined the reasons for diversification; and identified the constraints to diversification. A three-stage random sampling technique was used in selecting 160 households on which a structured interview schedule was administered. Descriptive statistics, a Likert-type scale, and the Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation were used for data analyses. Findings reveal that 1.3% of the households had no additional sources of income while 40.6% had at least four. Trading (55%) and livestock keeping (40.7%) were the most popular alternative income sources. The declining farm income (mean = 2.96) was the primary reason for diversification, while poor rural infrastructure (mean = 3.04) was the most severe constraint to income diversification. Farm size, access to extension services, household size, age and educational level of the household head were significantly related to the level of income diversification at p < 0.05. The study concluded that the level of income diversification was high and influenced by socioeconomic characteristics of the households. It recommends that the government should provide adequate infrastructural facilities in rural areas. Farmer associations should also ensure better prices for agricultural produce through joint marketing.

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (16) ◽  
pp. 9084
Author(s):  
Muhammad Amjed Iqbal ◽  
Muhammad Rizwan ◽  
Azhar Abbas ◽  
Muhammad Sohail Amjad Makhdum ◽  
Rakhshanda Kousar ◽  
...  

Many farmers worldwide resort to choosing various income-earning options for diversifying their income sources as a means of risk-avoidance, social protection, and, above all, to finance agricultural operations. Non-farm income generation among farm families has become an imperative part of livelihood earning strategies in recent years amid fast-evolving climatic and sociodemographic changes. In this regard, this study seeks to identify the patterns and socioeconomic factors responsible for the uptake of various non-farm income diversification sources among agricultural households in southern Punjab, Pakistan. For this purpose, a total of 290 farm households were sampled using a random sampling technique to collect relevant data through structured questionnaires. Results show that approximately 79% of the surveyed farmers were involved in non-farm income generation activities, whereas, the income from these sources accounts for about 15% of total household income. The majority of the respondents offered labour for off-farm work followed by self-employment ventures. The major reason to pursue non-farm work includes low income from agriculture, mitigating risks associated with farming, and acquiring funds to finance farming operations, along with the desire to increase family income. A range of socioeconomic and infrastructure-related variables are associated with the decision to participate in specific off-farm activity, such as age, education, family size, farm income, dependency burden, farming experience, and distance to the main city. Results imply the provision of technical support to increase livelihood from farming operations to ensure food security and curb rural-urban migration. However, vocational training can enhance the rural inhabitants’ skillset to diversify on the farm through agribusiness development within rural areas, enabling them to employ local people instead of populating urban centres.


Income diversification is an important strategy to augments income among small and marginal farmers. This study evaluated the income diversification among farm households in the Ariyalur district. A multi-stage sampling technique was used, and 115 rural households were selected by applying Arkin and Colton formula. The data collected were analyzed using the Herfindahl index and Gini-coefficient. The results showed that the average number of income sources accessed by all marginal farmers is about 1.81, and small farmers are about 1.90, and small farmers had an income diversification range of 0.64 to 0.65, which is a medium diversification category. When the non-farm and off income were considered together with agricultural income, the overall income inequality dropped. The results suggested that the local government should take serious steps to create employment avenues for smallholders outside agriculture that provide credit, training, and necessary inputs to rural households and recommended for public investment in rural infrastructures, such as roads and bridges, telecommunications, education, energy, and water.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malebo Mancha Massa ◽  
Abdulaziz Abdulsemed Mosa

Abstract Background: Deforestation and environmental degradation were identified among the leading factors worsening risk exposure in developing countries. Conservational tree growing was found a permissible option and an awake up policy direction to curve down the problem in Ethiopia. However, the uptake of this practice is far from complete and the art has not been made to a level that could make households self-reliant at least in tree resources, particularly in the highlands. This study was aimed at identifying the main decisive factors that potentially influence conservational tree growing behavior of smallholder farm households in Gamo highlands of Southern Ethiopia.Methods: The study was based on survey data collected from 11 villages in 2011/2012. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 335 farm households. A structured interview schedule and observation were used to collect primary data. Descriptive and inferential statistics and Logistic regression model were used to analyze the data.Results: The key findings showed that a host of factors significantly influenced smallholders’ decision to practice conservational tree growing. The study found that tree growing experience, age of the household head, farm size, and availability of suitable land area for tree growing and cash income from sales of trees were the significant factors explaining the variation in conservational tree growing behavior of households. The study also observed that indigenous social and cultural organizations and religious and old-aged funeral sites were the homes for old-aged but live indigenous tree species than private farms.Conclusion: Based on the findings, the study concluded that intra-farmer experience sharing, and support to efficient indigenous institutions and rural tree markets as potential entry points for mitigating deforestation, improving forestry, and developing environmentally sustainable agriculture.


Author(s):  
Ettah O. I. ◽  
Ebu B. O.

Formal agricultural loan is an important tool in agricultural development and key to agricultural modernization.  This is because this source of loans enables farmers to have access to production inputs as well as adopt modern farm technologies. For agricultural development to be achieved and sustained, agricultural loan is required especially in the rural areas where majority of the populace are engaged in agriculture. The study set out to analyse the determinants of agricultural loan access from formal sources in Cross River State central agricultural zone, Nigeria and proffer policy recommendations based on the findings. A three-stage random sampling technique was employed to get a total of 100 respondents with the use of a detailed structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and multiple regression model were used to analyse the data. Result of the analysis showed that socio-economic characteristics of farmers such as: age, gender, occupational status, household size, educational level, farming experience, farm size, farm income, off- farm income, and labour use by respondents determined farmers access or otherwise to loan from formal sources and result of the logit regression model showed that age, education, farm size, collateral, farm income and cooperative membership all affected access of loan from formal sources positively, while farm experience do not determine access of loan from formal sources. The following recommendations were made: farmers in the area should be encouraged by government to enhance their educational level, more farmland should also be made available to increase their farm size and cooperative society’s membership should be encouraged by government.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21(36) (2) ◽  
pp. 33-44
Author(s):  
Samuel Upev ◽  
Amurtiya Michael ◽  
Shuaibu Mshelia ◽  
Justice Onu

The study analysed rural farming households’ poverty status and alleviating strategies in Benue State, Nigeria. The specific objectives of the study were to: describes the rural household heads’ socio-economic characteristics; determine the poverty status of the respondents and its determinants; and identify poverty alleviating strategies of the respondents. Data for the study was collected from 420 respondents selected using a multi-stage sampling technique. Data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics, the Foster-Greer-Thorbecke poverty measurement index, and the Binary Logistic regression model. The findings of the study revealed a very high incidence of poverty (70%), having a gap of 0.34, and severity of 0.17. Poverty in the area is positively associated with the age of the household head and household size, while gender, educational level, off-farm activity, membership of a group, farm size, and land ownership are negatively associated with poverty. The common poverty alleviation strategies identified were agricultural wage labour (48.6%), rental services (45.0%), and transportation business (36.7%). Therefore, it was recommended that the government and other stakeholders should initiate sustainable social protection schemes that can assist rural residents in alleviating poverty until their condition improves.


2019 ◽  
Vol 52 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 149-156
Author(s):  
Ifeoluwa Damilola Adeoye ◽  
Wayo Seini ◽  
Daniel Bruce Sarpong ◽  
Ditchfield Amegashie

AbstractThis paper aims to analyze the extent of off-farm income diversification of farm households in rural areas of Nigeria by age, gender, educational qualification, farm size, household size and across the different regions in the country. The determinants of such diversification were also identified. Data for this study were obtained from 836 rural farm households using the Nigeria General Household Survey, 2013. The Herfindahl Index was employed to analyze the share of income from different income generating activities, extent of off-farm income diversification. Tobit Regression Model was used to identify the determinants of such diversification.An estimate of 0.28 was observed for the Nigerian rural farm households with a higher extent of diversification in the Northern regions. Males, older farmers, and farmers without formal education had a higher extent of diversification. The results show that having higher landholdings, post-primary education, access to electricity and location are major factors. Identifying the extent of diversification into the different off-farm sectors is relevant to inform policy and provide opportunities for promoting the different off-farm sectors with an ultimate goal of improving rural farm households’ livelihoods. This has its resultant effect on development of the entire rural space.


Author(s):  
Đào Thị Ly Sa

Abstract:  Kon Tum, a mountainous northernmost border province in the Central Highlands of Vietnam, is one of the poorest provinces in Vietnam. Many studies recently identified that the diversification of incomes is a critical livelihood strategy for rural households in developing countries. Thus, this study analyzes the factors influencing income diversification decision for off-farm work of rural households. The binary logit model will be employed to investigate the determinants of income diversification decision of rural households for off-farm work. Through 200 households selected using multi-stage sampling technique, this study showed that participation in off-farm employment was influenced by gender, age, education of household head, family size, number of children attending school, farm size, access to credit, and access to tarred roads. The findings suggested that it is important to support both agricultural and non-agricultural sectors to succeed in terms of poverty reduction and food security.Keywords: income diversification, off-farm work, rural household, poverty,  Kon Tum


Agriculture ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 518
Author(s):  
Ayal Kimhi ◽  
Nitzan Tzur-Ilan

Israeli agriculture has experienced rapid structural changes in recent decades, including the massive exit of farmers, a resulting increase in average farm size, a higher farm specialization and a higher reliance on non-farm income sources. The higher farm heterogeneity makes it necessary to examine changes in the entire farm size distribution rather than the common practice of analyzing changes in the average farm size alone. This article proposes a nonparametric analysis in which the change in the distribution of farm sizes between two periods is decomposed into several components, and the contributions of subgroups of farms to this change are analyzed. Using data on Israeli family farms, we analyze the changes in the farm size distribution in two separate time periods that are characterized by very different economic environments, focusing on the different contributions of full-time farms and part-time farms to the overall distributional changes. We found that between 1971 and 1981, a period characterized by stability and prosperity, the farm size distribution has shifted to the right with relatively minor changes in higher moments of the distribution. On the other hand, between 1981 and 1995, a largely unfavorable period to Israeli farmers, the change in the distribution was much more complex. While the overall change in the size distribution of farms was smaller in magnitude than in the earlier period, higher moments of the distribution were not less important than the increase in the mean and led to higher dispersion of farm sizes. Between 1971 and 1981, the contributions of full- and part-time farms to the change in the size distribution were quite similar. Between 1981 and 1995, however, full-time farms contributed mostly to the growth in the average farm size, while the average farm size among part-time farms actually decreased, and their contribution to the higher dispersion of farm sizes was quantitatively larger. This highlights the need to analyze the changes in the entire farm size distribution rather than focusing on the mean alone, and to allow for differences between types of farms.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathaniel Ayinde Olatunde ◽  
Imoleayo Abraham Awodele ◽  
Bosede Olajumoke Adebayo

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on indigenous contractors in a developing economy with a view to enhancing their performance. Design/methodology/approach The study used a purposive sampling technique to select 37 indigenous contractors with ongoing construction contracts in Osun State, Nigeria who provided data for the study. A structured interview protocol was used to elicit the required information from the interviewees and frequency, percentage and content analysis were used for data analysis. Findings The results showed that the critical impact of COVID-19 on indigenous contractors in a developing economy is: time overrun, loss of profit and creation of dispute. Further results showed that other impacts are a disruption in supply of labour, locally sourced materials are with additional cost, the additional cost of implementing COVID-19 protocols, difficulty in sourcing imported materials and absence of new jobs with the corresponding retrenchment of workers. Practical implications The study recommended special palliatives for the indigenous contractors from the government so as to cushion the impact of the pandemic on them, thereby enhance their survival and performance. A special arbitration panel is set up in each state of the federation to look at disputes arising from the aftermath of the pandemic, this is with a view to adequately compensate indigenous contractors with genuine and properly compiled claims. inferring from the findings of the study, it suffices to say that the severity of the impact of the pandemic is very high on indigenous contractors in developing economies, as such a better preparedness strategy could lessen the impact of such pandemic in the future. Originality/value The study is an attempt to unearth the impact of COVID-19 on indigenous contractors with ongoing construction contracts in a developing economy. The study will be of value to construction stakeholders in providing the information needed to devise strategies to minimise the impact of a pandemic on indigenous contractors in future projects thereby enhance their performance.


Author(s):  
Daniel Hailu ◽  

The study identified the factors that cause variation in the level of efficiency in potato production. The study used household level cross sectional data collected in 2015/16 from 196 sample farmers selected by multistage sampling technique. For the data collection, a personally administered structured questionnaire was used. In the analyses, descriptive statistics, a stochastic frontier model (SFM) and a two-limit Tobit regression model were employed. Tobit model revealed that technical efficiency was positively and significantly affected by education, land tenure status, extension service, credit and soil fertility whereas variables such as sex of household head, age of household head, farm size and land fragmentation affected it negatively. Therefore the study suggested the need for policies to discourage land fragmentation and promote education, extension visits, access to credit and soil fertility for improvement in technical efficiency.


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