Gender Analysis of Income Inequality and Poverty among Rural Households in Nigeria: Evidence from Akinyele Local Government Area, Oyo State

Abstract

Despite the wide believe that income inequality and poverty differ among the female and male headed households in Africa, very few studies have been conducted to empirically substantiate this. Therefore, this study assessed income inequality and poverty in rural Nigeria from a gender perspective. The study revealed that income was more evenly distributed among the female headed households than the male counterparts in the study area. Although, the male headed households had better access to land for farming, higher income and spent more on food than the female headed households, poverty incidence, depth and severity were higher among the male headed households than the female counterparts.  Number of dependants and households size was discovered to significantly increase the probability of falling below the poverty line among the respondents. Access to credit and contact with extension agents had significant poverty reducing effects. Therefore, in order to achieve the desired poverty reduction, it is recommended that more family planning awareness should be created, there should be social security particularly for the female headed households with large number of dependants, constraints limiting farmers’ access to credit should be identified and eliminated and finally, the extension system in Nigeria should further be developed in order to increase number of extension visits to the farmers.