Socio-economic determinants of income among cowpea farmers in Bama local government area of Borno state, Nigeria.

The paper analyzed the socioeconomic determinants of income among cowpea farmers in Bama Local Government Area (LGA) of Borno State, Nigeria. Primary data were mainly used for the study. This was collected using structured questionnaires administered to 120 cowpea farmers sampled from six villages spread across the LGA. The study employed both descriptive and inferential statistics to analyze the data. The findings of the study revealed that about 78% of the respondents were males while 22% were females. Majority of the farmers (63.3%) had formal education and 73.3% cultivated farm land of not more than 2 hectares. The regression analysis result indicated that the variables specified in the model explain 75% of the income generated by the cowpea farmers in the study area. Educational level, number of productive members per household, access to extension agents and years of farming experience were significantly and positively related to income of cowpea farmers. Major constraints reported by the cowpea farmers in the study area include high cost of inputs and inadequate storage facilities. Based on the results of the study, it was recommended that policy measures aimed at providing relevant training opportunities and education schemes to the farmers should be encouraged; further more, farmers should be encouraged to join or form cooperative societies to take advantage of economics of scale in purchasing inputs and also to obtain good price for their produce.KEY WORDS: Socio-economic, Determinants, Income, Cowpea, Bama, Nigeria