LIVELIHOOD STRATEGIES AND IMPLICATION FOR POVERTY REDUCTION AMONG SMALLHOLDER RICE FARMERSIN KANO STATE, NIGERIA

Poverty and environmental degradation remain central issues in political debates in many developing countries.Rural development in Nigeria is complicated due to biophysical constraints including low and uncertain levels of precipitation, infertile soils, and steep slopes.This paper empirically examined determinants of livelihood diversification strategy among smallholder ricefarmers in Kano State, Nigeria. Multistage sampling techniques was used for the study. Primary data were collected from a sample of two hundred and fifty four (254) smallholder ricefarmers using structured questionnaire. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics such as frequency and percentage table, Cluster Analysis, One-way analysis of variance and Multinomial Logit regression. Resultsof this study categorize smallholder ricefarmers into four livelihood strategies groups outof which threewere market-oriented strategy and one subsistence related strategy. Livelihood diversification to self-employment strategywasfound to be common (42%) among the smallholder rice farmers. livelihood diversification to self-employment, livestock production and market oriented/subsistence crop production strategy, were observed to be more lucrative strategies and more relevant to poverty reduction in the study area.Socio-economic and locational factors such as age, access to skill development training, total land cultivated, number of livestock owned, number of physical assets owned, membership to non-governmental organization, distance to nearest facilities and location factor represented by Garun Mallam were the major determinants of choice of dominant existing livelihood strategies in the area. It is therefore recommended that rural development policies aimed to support ricefarmers should strengthenskills acquisition training programs to ensure that farmerspracticefarming along with a wide range of income generating activities toimprove their wellbeing.