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ISSN 1923-6697[Online]
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Head of the Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Business and Social Sciences, University of Ilorin, Nigeria.
E-mail: fembam2005@yahoo.com
2
Guest Lecturer at the Institute of Public Administration and Management, University of Sierra Leone, Freetown. Lecturer of
Department of Business Administration, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria.
E-mail: drgbadeyan@hotmail.com; timigbade@yahoo.com
*Received 8 April 2011; accepted 6 June 2011
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INTRODUCTION
Agriculture is one of the important sectors in a developing economy, not only because of its contribution to the Gross
Domestic Product (GDP) but for employing greater proportion of a countrys labour force in productive activities
(Adegboye, 2004; Babatunde and Oyatoye,2005). In Nigeria, It provides food for the populace and served as one of the
major source of revenue to the country before independence, most especially before crude oil was discovered in large
commercial quantity at Oloibiri in 1958. The discovery led to the shift in Agricultural production to Crude oil exploration.
This scenario led to decline in Agricultural production with increasing population growth rate, which consequently led to
rising food prices in most Nigerian cities and rural areas (Babatunde and Oyatoye 2005).
Hassan and Omotola (2006 ) argued that, given Nigerias resource base, especially in relation to agriculture, she
should not have food crisis, however, this was never the case. They further noted that this food crisis manifests in the form
of quality and quantity of food intake; volume of food production; prices of food; population growth rate; and the earning
power of the people.
The quantity of food produced are grossly inadequate for the growing population. This consequently, makes the food
prices to be exorbitant or at the high side, thus making it not to be at the reach of the poor. The quality of food intakes by
most people are below the standard required because of their inability to afford the nutritionally sufficient diet. The high
inflation rate in the economy further compounded this dire situation thus having deteriorating effect on the purchasing
power of the people which made the food products to be unaffordable. Hence, the available food became unevenly
distributed, resulting to excess food in some places and shortages in other places ( Babatunde and Oyatoye 2005 ; Hassan
and Omotola 2006). It therefore, becomes necessary for the agricultural products to be moved from farm centers to the
individuals who desire to buy them for their immediate consumption. This paper, aims at examining how Small Scale
farming assists in alleviating poverty in both rural and urban cities; most especially through marketing of agricultural
products to the people.
The Informants profile revealed that of the respondents are female while are male. This reveals that greater
proportion of the Small Scale farmers in the study area are men. These farmers are engaged in mixed farming, with very
few of them involved in only crop productions. The reason given for mixed farming was that in almost every household
they rear domestic animals like goats, sheep and pigs; in addition to farming. The informants mostly engaged in food
crops production with few involved in cash crop production. The food crops planted by the farmers are Yam, Cassava,
Maize, Banana and Vegetables. They produce less of other food crops such as Beans, Rice, Potato and Tomato; thus
depending on those brought from the Northern part of the country to beef up their food supply. One of the Informants
commented that :
our people like pounded yam too much, that is why we plant a lot of yam here.
Other comment given was:
we plant cassava because it can be used for variety of foods and it is very easy to plant.
Maize and Guinea corn are also carbon hydrates food highly demanded by most household, hence the reason for most
farmers planting these crops. The study also revealed that women are mostly involved in planting vegetables. This
probably was due to the fact that most of these women plant the vegetables in their back yard. The women are able to
plant all year round. According to one of the female farmers :
Planting of vegetables has become my hobby; It offers as additional source of income to me, this is apart from the
one we eat.
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Sig. (2-tailed)
Mean
Difference
42.053
355
.000
1.33427
36.308
355
.000
2.52809
t
Methods of Farming
Estimated income received
from farming
2.6650
CONCLUSIONS
This paper has clearly discussed the importance of Small Scale Farming and Agricultural Products Marketing in poverty
alleviation, most especially among the rural dwellers. It has also indicated lack of access to fund as the major problem
facing Small Scale Farming and increase cost of transportation as the major problem facing marketing of agricultural
130
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