Multidimensional Poverty among Farming Households in Katsina State, Northwestern Nigeria

This study aimed to determine the multidimensional poverty status of farming households in Katsina state, northwestern Nigeria. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to elicit primary data from 480 farming households. Descriptive statistics and the multidimensional poverty assessment tool (MPAT-14) were used to analyze the data. The socio-demographic analysis showed that the mean age of respondents was 43 years while the average household size was 9 persons. The majority (86%) of respondents were male, and they were mostly married (85%) and educated (51.3%). The MPAT results showed that farmers in the study area experienced a high level of deprivation according to the majority of the fundamental human needs indicators, such as food and nutrition security (27.7%), domestic water supply (28.9%), health care (22.9), sanitation and hygiene (28.1%), housing, clothing, and energy (33.9%), and education (27.7%). The results indicate that the majority (60.6%) of the households are living in multidimensional poverty and that there is a higher level of multidimensional poverty among farming households. The government should upscale appropriate healthcare delivery systems to improve the healthcare services rendered.