DETERMINANTS OF EDUCATION AND HEALTHCARE SERVICE EXPENDITURESAMONGSMALLHOLDER RICEFARMERS INKANO STATE, NIGERIA

This study determined the factors influencingeducation and healthcare services expenditures of smallholder rice farmers in Kano State, Nigeriausing cross-sectional data. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistic anda Double-Hurdle model. The empirical results show that rice farmers decision on whether to spend and how much to spend on education are positively and significantly related to accessibility to financial service, total household expenditure and high dependency ratio of farm family. On the other hand, decision on whether to spend and how much to spend on healthcare service are positively and significantly related to accessibility to financial service, age of the household head, household income, location factors represented by Kura LGA and high dependency ratio of farm family. This study recommend implementation of policies and program aim to support poor rice producing farmers having high dependency ratio of farm family to facilitate their access to financial servicescould significantly improve the level of demand for education and healthcare services in the study area.