Off Farm Employment: An Alternative Strategy of Smallholder Farmers’ Financial Income in Gwer West Local Government Area, Benue State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study investigates off farm employment: as alternative strategy to overcome smallholder farmers’ financial income in Gwer West Local Government Area, Benue State, Nigeria. Primary and secondary data were used. Purposive and systematic random samplings were employed and a total of 380 copies of questionnaires were distributed. Descriptive statistics, charts and tables were also adopted. Five points Likert’s scale were employed. The study shows that the rationales for peoples’ engagement in off farm employments are linked to low income from farming, recent insecurity in farming and quest for alternative source of income for household livelihood outside farming as the most perceived major causes of off-farm employment. The findings further showed that overwhelming majority of respondents were of the assertion that off-farm employment is certainly an alternative strategy to improve household finance. It was recommended that farming households should be well trained formally and informally on other livelihood options in order to be adequately equipped for available and future off-farm employment opportunities in Nigeria. Government should as a matter of fact create cottage industries as well as small and medium scale enterprises in rural areas for the teeming rural farming households as alternative source of income.

Keywords: Alternative strategy of income, off farm work, smallholder farmers, Nigeria