Socio-economic Determinants of Engagement in Off-Farm Income Generating Activities among Small-Holder Farming Households in Imo State, Nigeria

The study focused on determinants of participation in off-farm income generation ventures among smallholder farmers. Specifically, it examined socio-economic characteristics of the respondents; identified their level of diversification into other areas, determined the influence of some farmers’ factors on diversification; ascertain constraints to diversification and made recommendation based on the findings. To achieve these, multi-stage random techniques was employed to randomly select 60 farmers. Then a set of structural questionnaire was used to obtain primary information from the respondents. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics and multivariate logit regression. Results showed that mean age, household size, farm size, years in school and experience of the respondents were 39.15years, 7 persons, 1.6ha, 14.61years and 8.18years respectively. The respondents were mainly males (77.67%) and married (63.33%). They diversified mainly into petty trading (35%), artisanal job (45%), wage income (40%) and manufacturing and construction (15%). Some socio-economic and other factors such as age, education, gender, experience, household size, access to credit, membership of cooperative, access to electricity, potable water and good roads influenced participation in off- farm jobs. The major constraint (70%) of participation was inadequate finance. Farmers should be encouraged to form and join cooperative societies to enable them overcome the problem of inadequate finance which constrained participation. Also agricultural development institutions should be set up in rural areas which will promote access to farm credit.