Impact of socio and demographic factors on multidimensional poverty profile of smallholder arable crop farmers – evidence from Nigeria
International Journal of Social Economics
ISSN: 0306-8293
Article publication date: 8 October 2021
Issue publication date: 3 January 2022
Abstract
Purpose
This paper evaluates the impact of socio and demographic factors on the multidimensional poverty of smallholder arable crop farming households in Nigeria.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were drawn from the second wave of the LSMS-Integrated Surveys on Agriculture General Household Survey Panel 2012/2013. The methods adopted in analysing the data were descriptive statistics, Alkire and Foster Method (AFM) and logit regression model.
Findings
The result shows that 84.34% of the households were headed by a male while 80.26% of the respondents were married with a mean household size of seven persons. The multidimensional poverty of arable crop farm households in Nigeria is 0.60, while the adjusted headcount ratio (MPI) is 0.27, with an average intensity of 0.45. We found that deprivation in the dimension of living standard accounted for 45.5% of the overall multidimensional poverty index (MPI). The result of the logistic regression indicates that household location, gender, household size and non-farm income are negatively correlated to poverty. The factors that increase poverty among households are the age of the household head and access to extension services.
Originality/value
The study presents an alternative means of assessing poverty among smallholder arable crop farming households in Nigeria. This study recommends that policymakers should focus more on improving the living standard of arable crop farming households to reduce poverty in rural areas. Similarly, concerted efforts should be made towards providing adequate health care and improved sanitation, supply of electricity and educational training that goes beyond primary education for farming household members.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The Chinese Government Scholarship Council financially supported this research (2016GXZL38).
Citation
Aminu, R.O., Si, W., Ibrahim, S.B., Arowolo, A.O. and Ayinde, A.F.O. (2022), "Impact of socio and demographic factors on multidimensional poverty profile of smallholder arable crop farmers – evidence from Nigeria", International Journal of Social Economics, Vol. 49 No. 1, pp. 107-123. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSE-12-2020-0834
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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