Social innovation as a driver of household standard of living: Insights from selected states in Nigeria

In developing economies, grassroots-level interventions that reconfigure existing systems showed increasing potential for poverty reduction and welfare enhancement. This study investigated how social innovation dimensions influenced household economic welfare among smallholder farmers in Nigeria. Specifically, it examined the effects of new services/products (farm advisory, crop insurance, weather forecasts), new practices (climate-smart agriculture, organic farming, integrated pest management), and new processes (e-marketing, digital payments, supply chain optimisation) on household standard of living across Adamawa, Kano, and Oyo States. Using a cross-sectional survey design, data was collected from farmers belonging to three agricultural non-governmental organisations KickStart, TechnoServe, and AGRA. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling revealed that new practices exerted the strongest positive influence on household standard of living (β = 0.669, t = 10.183, p < 0.000), followed by new processes (β = 0.322, t = 5.299, p < 0.000). New services/products showed a negative but significant effect (β = -0.150, t = 2.555, p = 0.011), suggesting implementation challenges or adoption barriers. The combined model explained 69.4% of variance in household standard of living (R² = 0.694). Economic indicators showed that 56.1% of farmers reported revenue increases from new products, while 48.3% experienced enhanced productivity through innovative practices. The findings confirmed that social innovation significantly drove household economic welfare among Nigerian smallholder farmers. Practically, these results provided evidence-based guidance for NGOs and policymakers to prioritise capacity-building in sustainable farming practices and digital agricultural processes, while addressing barriers in service/product uptake to maximise poverty reduction outcomes