Livelihood Vulnerability Resilience Capacity of the Rural Economy in Nigeria’s Bauchi State

Abstract

For poor households, a pattern of susceptibility is often revealed by the interaction of internal livelihood elements and external forces. Over the past ten years, there has been a lot of discussion around the idea of vulnerability in rural Africa. The literature on livelihoods has paid far less attention to the resilience idea, which was adopted from the ecological literature. It is against this background that this research, themed "Livelihood vulnerability resilience capacity of the rural economy of Nigeria's Bauchi state", was conceptualized for the purpose of charting a realistic sustainable livelihood policy course in the study area. Using a well-structured questionnaire coupled with an interview schedule to elicit information from a total of 322 households selected through a multi-stage random sampling technique, the specified objectives of the research were achieved using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Empirically, good possession of livelihoods assets viz. natural, human and financial capitals makes majority of households adopt adaptive strategies viz. diversification and intensification, so as to spread their consumption failure risks. Besides, the effect of adaptive capacity lessens the proportion of households with vulnerable livelihoods. However, the masking effect of food insecurity on adaptive capacity worsens the resilience capacity of households to livelihood vulnerability, consequently, the resultant heightened poor livelihood sustainability security that marred the rural economy. Therefore, the study advises policymakers to enhance the pillars that buffer livelihood vulnerability resilience capacity, given the empirical justification that resilience capacity has a significant direct influence on short-term, mid-term, long-term food securities and sustainable livelihoods in the study area.