Off-Farm Work in Nigeria

This book titled 'Off-farm Work in Nigeria: Perspective of Small-scale Farmers' was borne out of concern for small-scale farmers who account largely for the food need of the populace. Nigeria's rural area is dominated by low income and resource-poor farmers. Formal financial services are almost completely inaccessible by these farmers. In order to mitigate persistent financial constraint, small-scale farmers take advantage of business opportunities in the non-farm sector of the rural economy. The off-farm sector is now gaining prominence in research circles because of its envisaged contribution to reduction in farm household income fluctuation, minimisation of farm production and marketing risks, and provision of capital for reinvestment in the farm sector, among others. Obviously, participation in off-farm work leads to diversion of critical resources, especially labour, from the core farm production sector, thereby leading to dual farm structure. But, this depends on the extentof participation, which could be agricultural wage, non-agricultural wage, or self employment. Certain business-related factors account for the tendency to belong to either of this off-farm work typology