WELFARE AND POVERTY STATUS AMONG MAIZE FARMING HOUSEHOLDS IN LERE LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Nigeria has had a persistent socio-economically underdeveloped in the midst of immense mineral resources with two third of her population still trapped in poverty. This study therefore profiles the welfare and inequality status of farming households in Lere L.G.A of Kaduna State using a multistage sampling technique. Primary data was collected from 165 maize farming households. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, FGT measures of poverty and Logistic regression Model. The results show that majority of the farmers had poor access to electricity;. Farmers largely patronize alternative medication because of poverty. Poverty incidence was high with a value of 61.96%, a poverty Gap of 0.3329 and a poverty severity index 0.2321. Diversity in spending among the maize farming households was also high with a Gini index of 0.5493. Age (β = -0.018; p<0.01) of maize farmers, household’s size (β= 0.036; p<0.1); Primary occupation (β = 0.171; p<0.1) and status of education (β = -0.05; p<0.05) were found to influence the log likelihood of a maize farming household poverty status. The study recommends sustainable poverty reduction through improving the capabilities of the poor farmers. . Furthermore, coordination on proper family planning for birth control should be carried out for the farming families in the study area to boost their welfare.

Keywords

• consumption expenditure
• determinants
• greer and thorbeecke (fgt) index
• gini index