Determinants of Poverty in Farming Households in Southwest Geo-Political Zones of Nigeria

The study aim at revealing the determinants of poverty in rural farming household in the six (6) geopolitical zones of Nigeria. Simple random sampling technique was employed to select 400 farming household to source information to achieve the objective of the study. Data were collected through the use of a structured questionnaire and interview schedule. The collected data were subjected to various statistical tools such as percentages, means, tables, poverty ratios and regression analysis. The result of socioeconomic characteristics of the respondents revealed that 54.0 percent of the respondents were male with 48.0 percent of them married. Furthermore, the poverty line of ₦427.14 per person per day obtained was a reflection of limited resources among the farming households in the study area. The results tend to suggest problems of food insecurity among poor farming households. The determinants of poverty were age of the household head which has negative sign and significant at 5%, marital status was positive and significant at 1% while household size was negative and significant at 1%.


Introduction
The significance of rural poverty is underscored by the fact that as much as 45% to 80% of national population reside in the rural areas and are dependent in agriculture in most developing countries Ravalion et al. 2007. Poverty can be described as the level of deprivation that encompasses shortfalls or inadequacies in basic human needs, which prevent people from achieving internationally acceptable levels of well-being Etim, et al. [1]. This situation, which has been ascribed in some quarters to production failure owing to a Globally, about 1.2 billion people are in extreme poverty, living on less than a Dollar per day IFAD [2]. Majority of these people are in developing countries, 44% in South Asia, 24% each in sub-Saharan Africa and East Asia and 6.5% in Latin America and the Caribbean IFAD [2,3]. Within these regions, poverty is largely a rural phenomenon with an average of between 62 and 72% of the population living on less than a dollar a day Owuor, et al. [4].
In comparison, rural poverty also tends to be deeper than urban poverty in these regions Owuor, et al. [4].

Problem Statement
Poor people live without fundamental freedoms of action and choice that the better off take for granted Elijah [7]. They often lack adequate food and shelter, education and health, deprivations that keep then from leading the kind of life that every one values. They also face extreme vulnerability to ill health, economic dislocation, and natural disasters Owuor, et al. [4] and they are often exposed to ill treatment by institutions of the state and society and are powerless to influence key decisions affecting their lives. These are several dimensions of poverty World Bank [8]. Poverty is an unacceptable deprivation in well-being World Bank [8]. It exists when there is lack of the means to satisfy critical needs. Poverty can be regarded as the status, objective or subjective, of an individual or a population. Poverty will have an objective definition once observable and measurable indicators exist that are used to approach the material or other aspects of the lives of individuals.
On the other hand, the subjective definition of poverty is when judgment (including value judgment) of individuals is taken into consideration in order to investigate their welfare Amao [9].
Reducing poverty is an important development policy issue because economic growth is obviously associated with poverty reduction.
Nigeria has experienced a high incidence of poverty alleviation Etim NA, et al. [1]. The worrisome aspect of this phenomenon is the spatial differences in the incidence of poverty in Nigeria.
The United Nations Human Development Report (1998) declares that Nigerian poverty level is getting worse by the day and more than four in ten Nigerians live in conditions of extreme poverty of less than N320 per capita per month, which could hardly provide for a quarter of the nutritional requirements of healthy living. This is approximately $8.2 per month. The report ranked Nigeria 146 out of a total of 174 countries in its Human Development Index (HDI), which measures achievement in terms of life expectancy, education and real income per capita. Poverty has been identified as a rural phenomenon and its interventions will be effective only if the correct poverty causing factors are identified In recent years, because of the large prevalence of poverty, reducing it has been of great concern to many developing countries for the past few decades Babatunde, et al. [3]. This situation has created the quest

Study Area
The study was carried out in selected States of Southwestern

Analytical Method
The statistical tools used to realized the objective of this study were tables, percentage, mean poverty ratios and multiple regression analysis.
Descriptive statistical tools such as tables, means and percentages were used to analyse the poverty line. However, the analysis used household expenditure as a proxy for income, as income was very difficult to obtain.  Table 1 shows the socioeconomic characteristics of the respondents in the study area. The results of the descriptive statistics reveal that 54% were male while 46% were female. Thus, this implies that male dominate farming activities than in the study area. The table also shows that 48% of the respondents were married with 27% having no formal education. Majority (44%) of the respondents have less than 5 acres of farm size with 65% choosing farming as their major occupation.  and 10 respectively to their poverty level. This lends credence to some author's finding such as Elijah, et al. [4,7] that as the age of the household head increases, poverty level decreases. Education also enhances the ability to derive, decode and evaluate useful information as well as improves the quality of labour as viewed by

Conclusion
The poverty line of ₦427.14 obtained was a reflection of limited