Livelihood Status of Households within Igbo-Ora Community of Oyo-State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study examined the livelihood status of households within Igbo-Ora community of Oyo state. Forty households were sampled in each of the five quarters that constitute the study area through systematicrandom sampling technique to give a total of 200 respondents. Quantitative method was used in gathering data on livelihood abilities, assets and activities for the study. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze data at 0.05. Results of analysis revealed that 57.0% of respondents had
low level of livelihood abilities while, respondents had had high level of access to natural (57.3%), physical (54.0%) and financial capitals (54.0%). Accesses to social and human capital were low for 61.5% and 52.0% respondents respectively, with 60.0% having high level of livelihood activities. Most (55.0%) of the households had low livelihood status. There was a significant difference between the five quarters in terms of their livelihood status (r=0.043). Result of regression shows that livelihood abilities (0.652) and livelihood assets (0.489) contributed more to low respondents’ livelihood status. It is concluded that the livelihood status of households within Igbo-Ora is low because of the low livelihood abilities and assets of the respondents which contributed more to the low livelihood status. It is recommended that capacity building activities should be carried out by governmental and nongovernmental organisations using extension models to improve abilities to perform economically viable agricultural activities in order to improve their status.