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Survey Of Farm Source Of Income Among Residents
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1.3 Objectives of the Study
The
broad objective of the study was to examine the on-income
diversification decisions of rural households in Yola metropolis. The
specific objectives were to:
1. describe the socio-economic characteristics of residents in the study area.
2. identify the various sources of residents income of the rural households.
· determine the factors influencing the choice of income sources.
1. determine the level of gender participation in income diversification decision making.
2. examine the constraints in raising income from the various sources of
1.4 Hypothesis of the Study
Based on the specific objectives of the study, the following hypothesis was tested:
Ho: Socioeconomic characteristics of residents have no significant effect on their choice of income sources.
1.5 Justification of the Study
The
study of on-income diversification decisions in an agricultural state
such as Yola is important for several reasons. Firstly, Yola is an
agrarian state with majority of its population engages in agriculture to
earn a living (Egboke, 2004). Secondly, diversification choices are
supposed to reflect optimal strategies followed by households in order
to balance their expected returns with the related risk exposure they
face. Démurger et al. (2010) foretold that since all diversification
strategies may not be equally lucrative, understanding both the
incentives and the constraints that rural households face in their
decision between alternative options can offer important insights as to
what policy might effectively improve the rural poor access to higher
return activities. Thirdly, diversification choices reflect the
allocation of household assets and the allocation of household labour
resources across various activities.
In this rationale, this study
has provided interesting and useful information for individual farmers,
government, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and agro-based
industries. This study has contributed to literature by highlighting a
variety of channels for diversification decisions. Farmers will be able
to determine if they will gain or lose out in the process of
diversification and understand how to manage diversification
alternatives properly. It is also hoped that the findings of this study
would be considered by the various teams of experts and consultants now
assisting African countries to reach a higher path of economic growth
through agriculture-led development for rural population under the
Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) agenda.
1.6 Limitations of the Study
During
the course of the study, there were challenges which ranged from
dialect barrier, unwillingness of some rural farmers to fill the
questionnaire or to be interviewed, low record keeping and financial
constraints. The validity of the information given largely depended on
the perception of the respondents on the issues raised in the
questionnaire which influenced the quality of the information obtained
from the farmers.
Through the help of research assistants, the
researcher was able to collect sufficient information required to
achieve the objectives of the study. However, extra efforts were made by
the researcher to cross-check responses and discard the invalid
questionnaire.
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