ANALYSIS OF MULTIDIMENSIONAL POVERTY RATE AMONG RICE FARMING HOUSEHOLDS IN GOMBE STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study was carried out on analysis of multidimensional poverty of rice farming households in Gombe state, Nigeria. Multistage sampling was employed in selecting 355 rice farmers. The primary data so obtained covered information demographic profiles and multidimensional parameters. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) and Likert scale. Results showed that rice farming was dominated by literate men in their youthful ages whose participation is cooperative membership is low and exhibit poor access to credit facilities. The respondents were basically rice farmers. The multidimensional poverty index of the rice farmers was 0.1 due to the fact that the depth of poverty was only 18% and the percentage of multidimensionally poor rice farming households was 47.89%. Amongst the factors that contributed to multidimensional poverty, the highest contributors to deprivation were cooking fuel which was 77.47%, asset ownership was 58.31%, housing was 53.31% and school attendance was 52.96%. The constraints to rice production ranked using a five-point Likert scale revealed that; 83.95% strongly agreed to insufficient funds, 69.01% agreed with increased costs, 60.56% agreed with poor infrastructure, 47.89% agreed with climate change, 29.86% strongly agreed with inadequate government funding. The study recommended that the respondents key into relevant government programmes that are aimed at boosting rice production.