Comparing income poverty status of value adders and nonvalue adders: A case study of cassava farming households in Kwara State, Nigeria.
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2016
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Faculty of Food and Agriculture, The University of the West Indies
Abstract
Value addition is currently being advocated as an ingredient to food security. Meanwhile, value addition has its own opportunity cost, based on utility theory - the time spent by a farmer on value addition could be used by other farmers to engage in other income-generating activities. Thus, it is pertinent to know whether value adders are better than non-value adders. Therefore, this study compares the poverty status of value-adders and non-adders in Kwara State, Nigeria using cassava farmers as a case study. Specifically, the study described the socio-economic characteristics of the farmers, profiled the poverty status of the value adders and non-adders and identified the factors influencing the poverty status of the farmers. The data for the study were collected with a structured questionnaire involving 160 cassava farming households (60 value adders and 100 non-value adders) using a three-stage random sampling techniques. The data collected were analysed with descriptive statistics, FGT (Foster, Greer and Thorbecke) index and binary logistic regression model. The results revealed that the majority of the value adders were female while most of the non-value adders were male. About 38% of the value adders were poor while 51% of the non-value adders were poor. Also, the poverty depth and severity of the value-adders were 0.081 and 0.026 respectively whereas they were 0.144 and 0.0536 respectively for the non-value adders. These results indicate that value addition contributes to poverty reduction among the farmers. The logistic regression model revealed that non-farm income, cassava output and decision to add value contributed significantly to poverty reduction while the household size had a positive effect on poverty as it increased the farmers’ poverty status. This study therefore recommends measures needed to encourage the practice of value addition and improve the welfare of farming households.
Description
Keywords
Value addition, farming households, poverty, factors
Citation
49. Falola, A., Jonathan, A., Olowogbon, S. & Jimoh, J. O. (2016): Comparing income poverty status of value adders and nonvalue adders: A case study of cassava farming households in Kwara State, Nigeria. Tropical Agriculture, 93(1)78-86. Published by the Faculty of Food and Agriculture, The University of the West Indies. Available at https://sta.uwi.edu/tropicalagriculture/documents/Vol93No1/volume%2093%20issue%201%20paper%207.pdf