Poverty and Stochastic Dominance Comparison Using Educational Status of Crude Oil Polluted Crop Farms in Rivers State, Nigeria

This study focused on poverty and stochastic dominance comparisons using educational factors in crude oil polluted and non-polluted crop farmer households in Rivers State, Nigeria. Data were collected using multistage sampling technique, via 296 questionnaires from crop farmers in selected 17 local government areas (LGAs) of the state. Analytical tools used were FGT poverty measures and stochastic poverty dominance. The results of this study showed that incidence of poverty (P0) were higher in crude oil polluted crop farmer households (58.8% - 100%) as compared to non-polluted crop farmer households (40.1% – 66.7%), significant at 1%. The results also indicated that poverty gap (P1) in crude oil polluted category was slightly higher (6.3% - 13.9%) as compared to 7.3% - 13.4% in non-polluted crop farmer households (significant at 5%). The range of poverty severity (P2) in crude oil polluted was higher (0.9% - 4.6%) as compared to 0.7% - 4.1% in non-polluted crop farmer households (significant at 1%). The stochastic poverty dominance results confirmed that there was high rate of incidence of poverty (P0) in Rivers State, Nigeria as all educational sub-groupings first order stochastic dominance (FSD) conditions failed. However, the results revealed, there was higher poverty gap (P1) and poverty severity (P2) experienced among crude oil polluted crop farmer households than in non-polluted, as majority of the distribution curves were unambiguous at the second (SSD) and third order stochastic dominance conditions (TSD). In conclusion, there was high level of headcount poverty in the state. However, there was more high level of poverty (at P0, P1, P2 measures) in crude oil polluted than in non-polluted crop farmer households as at time of survey in 2003 using the educational variables applied in this study. This could have been as a result of crude oil pollution on crop farms.