Human beings live to get happiness, livelihood, peace, security, safety, dignity and respect among others. Deprivation of any of these could be frustrating. Thus, attempts were made to determine multidimensional poverty index (MPI) of rural households and its decomposition by geo-political zones in Nigeria using the Alkire-Foster MPI approach. The result showed that the headcount poverty ratio H was 78.1% when K = 30 as compared to 58.8% for K = 40 and 23.6% for K = 60. The adjusted headcount ratio also suggested that 41% of the households were poor at K=30, whereas 34.2 and 16.7% of the households were considered poor for K=40 and K=60, respectively. The intensity of poverty from the result showed that the share of dimensions in which the poor were deprived increased with K, while the MPI of the households was decreasing with K. The result further revealed that living conditions contributed the largest value (59.9%) to the multidimensional poor, followed by education (14.3%), health (13.4%) and assets (12.4%). Therefore, the living condition and education of households should be prioritized in targeting poverty as it contributes largely to MPI across all the geopolitical zones in the country.

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Small farms have shown spirited livelihood over time as they have significantly influenced agricultural production and rural poverty reduction. Small farm characterizes agriculture in Nigeria and seems to be persisting. What is the relationship between these persisting small farms and productivity? Multistage sampling technique was engaged in choosing the samples desirable for this study and where 880 farming households' data across the four regions of Nigeria were used to examine this linkage. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, cross‐tabulation analysis, and Total Factor Productivity analysis. Majority of the respondents derived livelihood in petty farming, but income received is somewhat insignificant. Farming households with less than 2 ha of agricultural land are poorer (30.1%) and used family/communal land for farming purposes. Total Factor Productivity analysis indicated 29% of these farmers operated on a low productivity out of which 65% of them identified poor, hence confirm the correlation between small farms and low productivity. About 67% of the poor households with low productivity augment household income from nonfarm rural acridities. Productivity has a significant effect on small farms doggedness at p < .05 and a deviation of 3.21. Thus, 1% increase in productivity would lead to 3.21% decrease in small farms persistence. Hence, the empirical analysis of persistence of small farms and the productivity models has thus shown that there exists a causal relationship. The simultaneity test between small farms and productivity revealed a direct link. This suggests that policies that can expedite efficient rural service delivery, interactions of agricultural production systems, and rural livelihoods can influence income increase and can also do same to improve productivity. Similarly, policies that promote the development of the rural nonfarm sector are crucial to help increase income available for farming and hence, improve smallholders' well‐being, preventing small farms from being a pool of the poor.

The study examined market participation behaviour among urban okra producers in Ojo Local Government Area, Lagos State, Nigeria. A two-stage sampling procedure was adopted in selecting 120 vegetable farmers during the dry season extending from November to March 2018/2019. Data on socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, farm-specific factors, and marketing and production output activities were collected using a well-structured questionnaire. Data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics (such as mean, standard deviation and percentage) and a Tobit regression model. Most of the urban farmers were young and educated and in their economic active age. The mean market share of okra marketed by the respondents was 7,662.17kg (representing 89.8% of okra produced). Sex, primary occupation, per capita land size, cost of seed, price of okra per unit, distance to nearest market and cost of labour significantly determined market participation (p<0.05). The study recommends policies that facilitate access to production resources like land, seed or planting material and farm labour at lower costs. The land policy that makes access to marginal land in an urban area available for agriculture should be as a form of empowerment to the vulnerable in society. Also, upgrading farm-to-market roads to reduce transportation costs to distant urban markets which offer better prices and encourage farmers to produce more marketable produce.

This paper evaluates impact of Community Driven Development programme on infrastructure under National Fadama II Project in Oyo State Nigeria. Data were collected from two hundred and sixty-four farmers using multistage sampling procedures. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and infrastructure index. The result shows that average infrastructural index in the area was 0.42. Forty-four villages were classified as infrastructural developed villages (IDV) while the remaining were infrastructural underdeveloped villages (IUV). The study therefore calls for the involvement of both private and public organization in construction and rehabilitation of rural infrastructure, processing services centers and researches on labour saving devices for agriculture in the study area.