Abstract

The study examined the effect of rural infrastructure on livelihood choice among farming households in Southwestern Nigeria (SWN). A multistage sampling procedure was used to collect primary data from 562 selected respondents on their socio-economic characteristics, Access to Rural Infrastructure (ARI) and livelihood choices [Cropping+Non-farm (CN), Cropping+Non-PoultryLivestock+Non-farm (CNPLN), Cropping+PoultryLivestock+Non-farm (CPLN) and Cropping+Fisheries+Non-farm (CFN)]. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and Multinomial Logit Regression. The study revealed that about 70% of the respondents were not more than 54 years old, male (65.1%) and married (70.1%). More households had high access to infrastructure (52.8%). Adoption of livelihood choice was 35.8%, 41.6%, 12.2% and 10.4% for CN, CNPLN, CPLN and CFN, respectively. Age, age², sex, household size, household income, Dependency Ratio (DPR), primary education, secondary education and land ownership explained CN, while CPLN was explained by age, secondary education, household income, access to credit and ARI. Age, tertiary education, land ownership, access to credit and ARI explained CFN. The study concluded that CPLN and CFN livelihood choices required adequate access to infrastructure. It is recommended that adequate provision of infrastructure should be ensured to encourage more farmers to go into these enterprises and thereby increase their productivity, level of income and food security.

Key Words: Rural infrastructure, Livelihood choice, Farming households