OFF-FARM LABOUR PARTICIPATION AND FARM HOUSEHOLD LIVELIHOOD STRATEGY IN YEWA DIVISION, OGUN STATE, NIGERIA

This study examines the pattern of farm and off-farm labour supply among members of farming households in Yewa Division of Ogun state, Nigeria. The study was based on primary data obtained in a cross-sectional survey of 80 randomly selected household drawn by a three-stage sampling technique from 10 randomly selected farming communities in the study area. The data was obtained by personally administered questionnaires, and was focused on the socio-economic characteristics of the farming households, its labour allocation among various economic activities, agricultural production and income from all sources. The study data was analysed by descriptive and regression (Tobit and logit) techniques. The study found that income from non-farm sources accounts for as much as about half the farm households’ income. Only very few individuals and households depended solely on only one source of income (farm or non-farm); but, married women, and individuals that had their professional training in non-farm activities tend to supply more labour off-farm than an average household member in the sample. Furthermore, the study suggests that a major cause of poverty among rural farm households has been a result of their inadequate access to livestock production capital and skills, and small landholdings in crop production. This is because those households that were able to combine livestock production with arable crops farming were richer, on the average, than an average farming household that divested its labour into non-farm activities