Abstract

Random sampling was used to select 90 rice farmers from 9 Local government areas in Kano State. Data were collected with structured questionnaire and analysed using descriptive statistics and multiple linear regression techniques in order to measure household poverty. This study revealed that 98% of the vulnerable farmers’ received improved rice seeds under the emergency intervention with average household size of 13 people. The farm size are small, of which  2.2% of the household have farm size that is above 5 acres; 13.3%, 3 to 4 acres; 22.2%, 1.5 to 2 acres and 62.2%, 0.5 to 1 acre. The indicators used to classify resource status were farm size, household and land holding. Wealth distribution showed that 81% population out of which 56% are married and 25% single are poor using per capita income indices. Poverty profile as measured by incidence, depth and severity were 54, 38 and 32%, and poverty line was calculated as the 2/3 of the mean per capita income. A farmer will need 38% of the per capita income to live within the poverty line. Household poverty indicated that 54% were below the poverty line. Majority (94%), have no access to credit facilities and incidence of poverty was 58%. Out of 11 explanatory variables, 6 were determinants of farmers’ income. Age, years of education, household size, average yield, improved varieties and access to credit facilities were significant at 10, 5 and 1%. These variables are important determinant of per capita income of the farming household, while the multiple regression on per capita income accounted for 46% of the variation.

Key words: Household, emergency rice initiative, per capita income, rice production, intervention, food crisis.