EVALUATION OF LIVELIHOOD STATUS OF FADAMA III TOMATO FARMERS IN KANO STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study evaluates the livelihood status and its socio-economic determinants among fadama III Tomato Farmers in Kano State, Nigeria. Multi-stage sampling procedure were used for the study and primary data were collected from a sample of 312 smallholder tomato farmers using structured questionnaire. The data were analyzed using descriptive such as frequency and percentage, minimum, mean, maximum and standard deviation and inferential statistics such as Livelihood Security Index (LSI) and Propensity Score Matching (PSM). Findings of the study revealed that Result of the study shows that tomato production is dominated among young active (41 years), male (99.4%) people who were married (89.4%) and attended more of western formal education (74.7%). Livelihood status index result indicated that RPCs technologies users had higher livelihood status (0.40) than the livelihood status (0.38) obtained by TWBs technologies users. The high index score obtained could be attributed to better access to empowerment training, availability of food, access and control to economic resources together with availability and access to health care and educational facility and services in the study area. Socio-economic factors such as education, access to credit, farm size, household size, experience and marriage were observed to influence the livelihood condition of the farmers in the study area. The study recommended that rural development policies need to promote awareness on the RPCs technology through relatively experienced farmers that have access to credit with relatively large farm holding to reduce post-harvest losses and subsequently improved the livelihood of Fadama III tomato farmers.