The scourge of poverty, including its correlates, has been witnessing an incremental sequence over the years in Nigeria despite the natural endowment of the country. Efforts by various stakeholders to address this problem have not yielded tangible results. Using cross-sectional data collected in 2015 on 775 cassava farmers spread across four geographical zones, this study estimates multidimensional poverty of cassava producers in Nigeria. This is to determine the factors responsible for poverty increase and contribution(s) of these factors to poverty. The study found that about 74% of the respondents were multidimensionally poor. Assets and public/housing utility were the main contributors to aggregate multidimensional poverty index (MPI), while education and health contributed most to povertyreduction. The results also showed major contributing indicators to MPI to be formal employment, school enrolment, years of schooling, frequency of hospital visits, and household assets’ ownership. The South-eastzone of Nigeria had the highest adjusted headcount of poverty among cassava producers. The estimated coefficient of age, farming experience, years of schooling, household size, and access to informal credit were significant determinants of poverty in the study area. In conclusion, the results suggest that although Nigeria is a federation of more than 30 states that continue to rely on nation-wide policy initiatives of the central government, policies on cassava aiming to lift millions of people out of poverty should instead vary according to the peculiar poverty dimensions of each federation unit. We suggest reform in the agriculture sector that will emphasize facilitation and access to incentives (credits, training, extension, cooperate system, etc.) by younger farmers to engage in modern cassava farming, thereby, enhancing the chances of rural cassava growers to move out of poverty.

Food security, at national and household levels, is on the decline because traditional capital (physical, natural, human and financial) has not fully led to its improvement. There is an increasing shift of attention to social capital as an element that explains household food security, but there is a lack of adequately documented information on this. Therefore, this study investigates the effects of social capital on food security, using data collected on a cross-section of 775 cassava farming households from four zones of Nigeria. About 58% of the respondents (cassava farming households) fall under the intermediate category in terms of the benefits received from belonging in social groups. Age and educational level increased the probability to receive benefit from group activities (p < 0.05), while membership density, labor contribution and decision making significantly affected the level of benefit received (p < 0.10). Based on the estimated food security line, 41% of the cassava households were food secure, while 59% were food insecure. Membership density, cash and labor contribution significantly affected food security. Membership density (p < 0.10) and cash contribution (p < 0.05) increased the probability of being food secure. It was recommended that cassava farming households should be encouraged or aided to form cooperatives or farmers’ groups, participate in the activities, and make financial contributions to investments that reduce manual labor-input in the farming activities to enhance household food security.

Background: Soil degradation remains a serious threat to agricultural production. With increase downpour due to climate change effect, more farmlands are exposed to erosion. Therefore, ecologically sound strategies for erosion control are indispensable to farmers, to boost agricultural productivity. Results: A multistage sampling technique was used to select the respondents for this study, and descriptive and inferential statistics were adopted to determine the farmers’ perception of the awareness, adoption and use of vetiver grass technology in controlling erosion in the study area. A total of four hundred valid questionnaires were subjected to analysis and the result shows that most of the farmers (29%) were between the ages of 41 and 50 years and the average age of the respondents stood at 45.5 years, implying that the farmers were in their productive and active age. Most of the respondents were male and married with an average household size of 5.2. Large number (76%) of the respondents had formal education, which the level ranged from primary to post-secondary education. Large proportion of the respondents engaged in private business as secondary occupation with an average income of $84.6 per cropping season. The effectiveness of vetiver grass adoption and use was significantly influenced by age (P < 0.1), gender (P < 0.01), marital status (P < 0.05), level of education (P < 0.01) and income of the respondents (P < 0.05). Most of the respondents within the ages of 41–50 years were aware of the erosion control potentials of vetiver grass and adopted the grass because it was cheap and affordable, easy to cultivate and maintain, and readily available and perceived to possess the potential effectiveness to control erosion. Conclusion: Stakeholders are enjoined to increase the awareness of the vetiver grass for increased adoption and utilization, as many farmers were ignorant of the vetiver grass technology for erosion control in the study area.

The study assessed persistence and vulnerability to poverty among rural households in Nigeria. The Nigeria - Living Standards Survey (NLSS) of year 2018 – 2019 dataset was used. Employing 3-stage Feasible Generalized Linear Regression (FGLS) to estimate vulnerability to poverty; the average age of the respondents stood at 48 years with average household size of 6 and dependant of 4 on average. The result further showed that higher proportion of the rural households were vulnerable to poverty. Less than half (44%) of the households were highly vulnerable to poverty and 34.5% were moderately vulnerable to poverty. The expected poverty was higher (71.4%) than the observed poverty (67.1%), indicating that higher poverty is imminent in future. Furthermore, the study shows that the coefficient of primary education (p = 0.075), access to credit (p = 0.000), electricity (p = 0.033), farm asset (p = 0.000), and remittance (p = 0.043) indicated a negative sign and significantly influence vulnerability to poverty. In conclusion, poverty will persist and increase with rise in age, dependency ratio, covariate and idiosyncratic shocks, lack of formal education, distance to health facility and type of toilet used by the respondents. The study therefore recommends prompt implementation of measures that will reduces shocks specific to regions in the country.