The Influence of Social Capital and Farmers’ Specific Factors on the Poverty of Rural Farm Households in Akwa Ibom, State, Nigeria

This study analyzed the effect of social capital and other relevant factors on poverty of farm households and identified constraints militating against effective social capital formation among poor rural farm households belonging to associations in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. A multi-stage sampling technique was utilized to choose 180 rural farm households within the research location. The FGT methodology was used to generate indices of poverty. Descriptive statistics, Tobit model and factor analytical procedures were employed to analyze the objectives of the study. The estimated model showed high degree of fitness, thus justifying the estimation method used. The results revealed that, the following social capitals: farm size acquired from the association, income derived from membership of association, number of visits of extension agents, interest amount paid on loan acquired from association, fertilizer, seeds, pesticides and farm land acquired from the association have a significant negative relationship with the poverty of rural farm households in the study area. By implication, increase in the stock of these social capitals by poor farm households would significantly enhance the reduction of poverty depth among them. Moreover, other factors which affected farm household poverty status were sex of household heads, age, household size, years of formal education, farm income and ownership of assets. The results also found 8 categories of constraints militating against effective social capital formation among poor rural farm households. The constraints categories are: leadership, management style and low income; financial constraint and unconcerned attitude of members towards group activities; executive characters; ineffective coordination and unfair distribution of benefits to members; lack of seriousness of members; poverty; illiteracy and incompetence as well as defaults and partiality. From the result, it is concluded that social capital accumulations reduce the probability of being poor. Based on the high percentage of poverty prevalence in the State, it is concluded that poverty is endemic in the rural areas of Akwa Ibom State and specifically among farm households. This study lends support to recent emphasis on investing in social capital as a major means of poverty reduction in the rural areas.