ASSESSMENT OF LIVELIHOOD STRATEGIES AND INCOME DISTRIBUTION PATTERN AMONG FARMERS IN ADAMAWA STATE, NIGERIA

This study assesses the livelihood strategies and income distribution pattern of food crop farmers in Adamawa State, Nigeria. The objective of the study was to examine the socioeconomic characteristics of food crop famers and to analyze their income distribution pattern. A multistage random sampling technique was used to select 150 food crop farmers. Structured questionnaire survey was used to obtained data from the respondents in the study area. Descriptive statistics (percentages, mean and standard deviation), Line chart, Lorenz curve and Gini Coefficient was used to analyze the data obtained from the field survey. The study shows that majority 68.7% were full time farmers with average mean of 31 years of age and about 30.98 years of farming experience. Majority (85.3%) were male farmers and only 15.3% of the respondent had no formal education with average land holding of 1.39 hectare. The result reveals standard deviation of 185753.9 and average income of 46400.8 of the respondents. The result from the Gini Coefficient reveals that the overall Gini Index of income is 0.53 indicating relatively high income disparity among the respondents in the study area. The study recommended desirable development programs that will boost the income levels of the poor farmers for both redistribution and poverty alleviation purposes.