CHANGES IN THE INCOME GENERATING ACTIVITIES OF CROP FARMERS IN ODO-OTIN LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, OSUN STATE: IMPLICATIONS FOR POVERTY ALLEVIATION PROGRAMMES

The study examined changes in the income generating activities as well as causes of the changes of farmers in Odo-Otin Local Government Area of Osun State. These were done with aim of identifying implications for poverty alleviation programmes in the Nigeria. The study reveals pronounced changes in poultry raising (20%), trading (18.1%), cultivation of potato (8.1%), maize (5%) and cassava (2.5%); goat rearing (5.6%), food processing (3.1%), embroidery (4.4%), selling of vegetables (4.4%) and production of cocoa (-23.8%) and kola (-21.9%). The reasons adduced for the changes are inadequate credit facilities (96.3%), scarcity of labour (95.0%), market prices of agricultural commodities (93.8%), scarcity of agro-inputs (75.0%) and deforestation (85.6%); with adequacy of credit (Beta = 0.36) and deforestation (Beta = 0.28) making the greatest contributions to the changes. Poverty alleviation programmes should therefore empower crop farmers in areas of positive changes while the problems of credit availability and deforestation be adequately addressed to help alleviate poverty that has become the burden of majority of the farmers