Determinants of Poverty among Rural Households in Asa Local Government Area of Kwara State

Abstract

Poverty is a global menace that threatens the standard of living of the people across various countries of theworld. This study therefore, focused on the determinants of poverty among rural household in Asa LocalGovernment Area, Kwara State, Nigeria. A multistage sampling technique was used for this study. In the firststage, ADP zone C was purposively selected. The second stage was the random selection of one LocalGovernment Area from the ADP zone. The third stage was random selection of three villages in the LocalGovernment Area. The fourth stage was the random sampling of fifty (50) respondents in each of the villages. Atotal number of 150 respondents were interviewed with structured questionnaire. Data collected were analyzedusing descriptive statistics and ordinary least square regression. Data were analyzed to determine the relationshipbetween independent variables (age of household head, years of schooling of household head, non-working,access to water, power abuse, poor housing quality) and the dependent variable (per capita income in N). Themean age of the household heads was 40 years. This shows that majority of the respondent were still within theirproductive age. However, the unemployed household heads were 31.33% of the respondents. Households whohad no access to portable drinking water were 13.33% and those who were abuse by those in position ofauthority were 40%. About 69% were non-poor while 31.33% were below poverty line. Therefore, governmentshould provide job for teaming unemployed youths by engaging them in skill acquisition programmes which areengineered towards enhancing food security and eradication of poverty.Keywords: Access to water, per capita income and poor housing quality.