Effects of livelihood diversification strategies on income security status of women farmers in Niger state, Nigeria

The study analysed the livelihood diversification strategies and its effects on food security status among women farmers in Niger State, Nigeria. A multistage sampling technique was used for this study. A total of 242 registered women farmers were randomly selected as respondents, data were analysed using inferential statistics such as (Simpson Index of Diversity, Foster-Greer-Thorbecke (FGT) and Probit regression model). Results obtained show that majority (67.8%) of the women farmers had moderate livelihood diversification, while 26.4% had low extent of diversification, that is, they depended on less than two sources of income. The results obtained also showed that 52.0% of the respondents were income insecure, while 48% were income secured. However, factors such as, age, level of education, family labour, access to government support, income from crop diversification, income from off-farm diversification and income from on-farm diversification were significant effects of livelihood diversification on income security of the women farmers households. The result conclude that majority of rural women households had moderate extent of livelihood diversification while only few had low extent of diversification with low income security status due to the economic situation of the nation. It was recommended that farm households should diversify their sources of livelihood into non-farm so as to increase their earnings to bridge the poverty gap.