Rural Women in Kwara State (Nigeria) and their Contributions to the Welfare of their Households

The high incidence of poverty in the rural households calls for a concerted effort by all members of the household, including the women. Meanwhile, the discussion on the economic contribution of rural women in many developing countries has largely focused on national and regional levels with little or no concentration on their impact at their immediate household level. Therefore, this study examines the contribution of rural women to household welfare in Kwara State, Nigeria. Data were collected from 160 women in the rural area of the state using structured interview schedule. The data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, index ranking and regression model. Results showed that the mean age of the women was 41.2 years, 61.3% were married, less educated and had an average household size of six persons. Their main source of income was agro-processing (54.4%), though they were pluriactive in nature. The mean income earned by the women was N15,344.65 ($42.62) per month. The major areas of contribution of the women to household expenditure were food (47.73%), clothing (12.13%) and children’s education (9.12%). The results further revealed that the significant factors influencing women’s contribution to households’ welfare in the study area were age, level of education, savings, remittances, training on enterpreneurship and access to credit. Therefore, measures that will increase the income generated by rural women should be put in place so as to boost their contribution to the welfare of their households

Taming Occupational Stress among Farmers in Developing Nations

Agriculture is a major sector in most developing nations of the world. The world food poverty is on the rise, with almost one in seven people around the world who are chronically hungry and lacking enough food to be healthy and lead active lives. The race is on to explore agriculture to produce enough food to feed the rapidly growing population. Consequently, there has been a change in the dimensions of agricultural health risks among farm workers in most developing countries. Occupational health-related studies are very important, yet research outputs in these regions of the world are yet to target this area extensively to stimulate appropriate policy formulations. Farm workers therefore have low adaptive capacity to workplace stress-related issues. These peculiar constraints have exposed farmers to work-related stressors affecting their well-being. In this context, farm stress occurs as a result of adverse reaction farmers’ faced including excessive pressure, seasonality, rural lifestyle, job demands or reactions to some uncertainty in their farming businesses. This chapter X-rayed the concept of farm stress in a developing nation context, providing empirical basis for the formulation of appropriate interventions to reduce farm stressors with particular focus on stress in the crop and poultry ventures

Assessment of IFAD/FGN poverty reduction programme among farm households in Ondo State of Nigeria

Household poverty, especially among the farm families which are the highest population in Nigeria is still a major issue of discourse among policy makers and analysts. This study assesses the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the Federal Government of Nigeria (IFAD/FGN) poverty reduction programme among farm households in Ondo State, Nigeria. The study employed a multi-stage sampling procedure. A total of 60 beneficiaries and 60 non-beneficiaries were interviewed using a structured questionnaire. Data were analyzed using a combination of descriptive statistics and Foster, Greer and Thorbecke poverty measure. The study shows that poverty incidence, depth and severity among the respondents were lower among IFAD/FGN beneficiaries than among the non-beneficiaries. Poverty incidence for beneficiaries was (0.66) against (0.79) for non-beneficiaries. This implies that about 66% and 79% of beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries were poor respectively. The poverty depth was (0.16) for beneficiaries compared to (0.24) for non-beneficiaries. The severity of poverty was mild among the beneficiaries (0.017) while it was severe among the non-beneficiaries (0.072). However, the study showed that the poverty measures (incidence, depth and severity) of beneficiaries were lower compared with non-beneficiaries. Poverty related indices were still noticeable among the beneficiaries with poverty incidence of 66%, depth of 10% and severity of 1.7%. This implies that only 34% of the beneficiaries could be said to be non-poor compared with about 20% of the non-beneficiaries. This study recommends that IFAD/FGN project effort should be intensified at reducing poverty rates in the study areas using other measures such as income diversification and establishment of small scale agro-industries. More funds should also be made available for such programme and the programme should be extended to other states and rural areas of the country