Poverty status and income inequality among farming households in Dutse Local Government Area of Jigawa State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study examined the poverty status, its determinants and income inequality of farming households using cross sectional data in Dutse Local Government Area of Jigawa state, Nigeria. Focusing on the 2022 farming season, data were collected from 122 farming households who were selected through a multi-stage sampling technique. To achieve the objectives of this study, the Foster-Greer-Thorbecke (FGT) index, Gini coefficient and a logistic regression model were employed. The result revealed that 83% of the households were poor, poverty incidence was 98.4% and Gini coefficient was 0.6. Factors identified to influence the poverty status were credit access, farming experience, farm income and off farm income. Specifically, the odds ratio of the variable representing access to credit showed that having access to credit increases their odds of becoming poor by 864.23 times. However, this does not diminish the importance of credit supply to smallholder farmers. Rather, it calls for a proper monitoring to ensure appropriate use of the credit funds. In addition, farm income and non-farm income had no association with the poverty status of the households as indicated by their odds ratios of 1.000, respectively. Furthermore, the study found that having longer years of farming experience was not positively related with a lower likelihood of them being poor. These findings call for a recommendation on increased information about proper farming practices. Policies favourable to increasing agricultural productivity and income as well as encouraging diversification of income generating activities both within and outside crop production could reduce the poverty incidence in the study area.