Livelihood Diversification among Arable Crop Farmers in Osun State, Nigeria
Keywords:
Diverse portfolio of activities,, livelihood diversification status,, Simpson diversity index Uniosun Journal of Agriculture and Renewable Resources UJARRAbstract
Livelihood diversification entails the construction of a diverse portfolio of activities and social support capabilities for survival and improved living standards. This study examined household livelihood diversification among arable crop farmers in Osun State, Nigeria.
Using a multistage sampling procedure, a total of 225 arable crop farmers were proportionately selected across the three agricultural zones as study sample. Data were collected and analysed using descriptive statistics, the Simpson diversity index and PPMC.
The results showed that the majority of the respondents were married males with the mean age and mean year of formal education of 48.6±27.3 years and 8.2±4.5 years respectively, and a mean household size of 6 members.
They cultivated an average farm size of 2.90 hectares and had a mean monthly income of ₦61,448.89. The mean diversity index was 0.30, indicating that 52.0% of the respondents had low livelihood diversification.
Improved food security was the major perceived benefit derived from livelihood diversification, while epileptic power supply was the major constraint.
Age (r = -0.197), years of formal education (r = 0.133), farming experience (r= -0.322) household size (r = 0.161) and monthly income (r = 0.272) were significantly related to livelihood diversification at p ≤ 0.05.
To improve the well-being of arable crop farmers, it is recommended to increase awareness of the importance of livelihood diversification and provide stable power supply and other support infrastructures.
