A gender analysis of determinants of poverty among rural farming households in Nigeria

The study identifies the determinants of poverty among male and female-headed households in Kwara State using a randomly selected 510 representative farming households. Descriptive statistics, Foster, Greer and Thorbecke class of poverty indices as well as Tobit regression model were used as analytical tools. The robustness of the estimated Tobit parameters were also verified using stochastic dominance analysis. The results of the Foster, Greer and Thorbecke poverty measures show that the female-headed households were poorer than their male-headed counterparts. At varied poverty lines of 70-145% of the estimated line, the female-headed households were also poor. The different determinants of poverty for the two categories of households were among others, household size, highest educational attainment of the household heads and membership of cooperative society. The study recommends that poverty reduction strategies in the study area should be gender specific and should focus mainly on variables that influence the poverty status of each category of households.