Rural households' livelihood strategies in Kebbi State, Nigeria

Abstract

This research studied rural livelihood strategies in Kebbi state, Nigeria. Stratified proportionate sampling was used to select 343 respondents, from whom data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics and multinomial logit regression. Based on the socioeconomic characteristics of the respondents, results revealed that the mean age of the respondents was 43 years, the majority of whom were male and married with an average household size of 12 people. Most of the respondents did not go through formal education and their mean annual income and farm size were ₦1,137,629.50 and 3.34 hectares, respectively. Results on livelihood strategy revealed that the majority (64%) of the respondents combined agricultural activities with other non-farm activities. Results from the multinomial logit model results revealed 7 (age, household size, years of education, access to credit, annual income, participation in social organization, and farm size) out of 11 factors as significant predictors of livelihood strategy in the study area. Thus, livelihood is moderately diversified among the rural households of Kebbi State with households having more than one income source. Also, diverse income sources provide relief to rural households as it increases their total income where the majority of the rural households combine both agricultural and non-farm activities livelihood strategies. Policymakers should therefore give due attention by incorporating projects and/or any interventions that will target and engage rural household heads in the study area in income-generating activities that would augment present earnings.