Off-Farm Diversification among Small-Scale Farmers in North Central Nigeria

Abstract

The study examined off-farm diversification among small-scale farmers in North Central Nigeria. Multistage sampling technique was used to select 180 respondents. Data for the study were obtained with the aid of standard questionnaire and analysed using entropy index of diversification and multiple regression analysis. Findings showed that the degree of off-farm diversification among small-scale farmers in North Central Nigeria was high, and that the farmers were neither specialised nor completely diversified. Socioeconomic characteristics of the farmers that significantly increased the degree of diversification in the study area were farming as primary occupation, formal education, off-farm work experience, and off-farm work. Conversely, age, farm size, on-farm work hours, leisure, hours, farm asset current value, and crop income decreased off-farm diversification. It was recommended that farmers endeavour to reduce the degree of off-farm diversification so that they could have more time for farm work. Increase in allocation of time to off-farm work would enable the farmers to more efficiently manage large farm size. Government should ensure that farm assets do not depreciate drastically or that replacement of farm asset should guaranteed. Policy measures should enable farmers obtain more income from their crops.

Keywords: Off-farm work, diversification, entropy index, multiple regression, small-scale farmers, socioeconomic characteristics, functional forms.