Analysis of cocoa farmer’s poverty status in Abia State, Nigeria: The Foster, Greer and Thorbeck (FGT) decomposable poverty measure

Abstract

A poverty measure is said to be decomposable if the poverty quota or size of a group is a weighted average of thepoverty measures of the individuals in the group. This study analyzed Cocoa farmer’s poverty status in Abia State,Nigeria with the application of Foster, Greer and Thorbeck (FGT) decomposable poverty measure. A total of 90 farmhouseholds found in Ikwuano, Umuahia North and Bende Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Abia State who werethe major Cocoa producing LGAs of the State were chosen for the study. A Multi-stage purposive sampling techniquewas adopted in selecting the respondents. Descriptive statistics and Foster-Greer-Thorbeck (FGT) decomposablepoverty measure was employed in analyzing the research objectives. Result from the socio economic characteristicsshows that majority (86.67%) were males while 13.33% were females. Analysis from the FGT showed that 36.67%of Cocoa farmers in Ikwuano LGA fell below the estimated poverty line while the other 63.33% were classified asnon-poor, whereas 40% of Cocoa farmers in Umuahia North LGA were moderately poor while the other 60% wereclassified as non-poor. In Bende LGA, 10% of the Cocoa farmers were extremely poor, 36.67% were moderatelypoor while the remaining 53.33% were classified as non-poor. The result implies that the poverty status in the threeCocoa producing LGAs of the State varies; with greater percentage of the Cocoa farmers classified as non-poor whilethe others were categorized as poor. It is therefore recommended that greater equality in income distribution shouldachieved by improving the productivity of the poor Cocoa farmers, especially through increasing their credit facilities, basic education, health and technical skills.