Volume 3 (Issue 2) 2023 Article 21

ABSTRACT:

This study was conducted to examine income diversification profile and its determinant among wetseason smallholder rice Farmers in Jigawa State, Nigeria. Multi-stage sampling techniquesconsisting purposive and random sampling were used in selecting 292 wet season smallholder riceFarmers who were interviewed using structured questionnaires by trained enumerators. Theanalytical tools employed include descriptive statistic, Mean income share index, Simpsondiversification index and censored Torbic regression models. The result shows that that 96.9% ofthe farmers were males with a mean age of 40 years. Mean household size was 12 persons. Wetseason rice production was the major occupation for the farmers with most of them having averagefarm size of 2 hectares. Income from rainfed rice production which is mainly subsistence in natureand is the most basic farm income, providing about 56.4% of total farming household income andIncome from livestock rearing contribute about 17.2% of the total income. The result of SID of thefarming household shows that 51.6% had high income diversity and 48.4% had low incomediversity scores. Variable that were found to be significant in influencing income diversificationinclude income from rice production, access to credit, Vocational training and access to improveinput index. It is therefore recommended that since the study observed that level of diversificationincrease as access to improve farming input and farm equipment increase, therefore there is need bythe stakeholders to facilitate easy accessibility to improve seed, fertilizer, agro chemicals and otherfarm equipment such as tractors, mechanical traction. This can be accomplished with the supportand cooperation of Government, NGOs and other development partners particularly in rural areas.