AKSU Journal of Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development

ANALYSIS OF HOUSEHOLD POVERTY STATUS IN ORUK ANAM LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, AKWA IBOM STATE OF NIGERIA

Author:  Okorie, N. U., Okoro, G. I. and Eshiet, E.

Abstract
The study analyzed the poverty status among rural farm households in Oruk-Anam Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. Data were collected from 120 household’s heads spread across nine (9) clans in Oruk-Anam Local Government Are and analyzed using descriptive statistics, Forster-Greer and Thorbecke (FGT) poverty model and Logit model. The results for the socio-economic revealed that majority (43.3%) of the rural farm household’s head were aged between 51-60 with a mean of 40.5%. About 45% of the total respondents had less 5 years of farming experience. The majority of the household size stood at between 5-10 members and greater percentage of the household’s head were married, 57.5% of the household’s heads were male and 51.7% had secondary education without higher institution. 76.7% of the respondents were without access to extension service while 80.8% had no access to credit. Also, 60.8% of respondents were non-poor, 32.5% moderately poor, and 6.7% were poor. The poverty incidence, depth and severity were 0.516, 0.2904 and 0.0632 respectively among the rural farm households. Further analysis of the determinants of poverty using the logit model revealed that 6 out of the eleven (11) variables impacted significantly on poverty incidence and these were membership to social organization, monthly income, farm size, education, age, and household size. Hence, farmers should be educated through series of awareness campaigns on the need to embrace off-farm activities. Also, policies should be made on intense family planning to reduce the size of household as well as participation in social organization to enhance the raising of capital for farming.