Entrepreneurship Development as a Strategy for Poverty Alleviation among Farming Households in Igbo-Eze North Local Government Area of Enugu State, Nigeria

Abstract

The emergence of the free market economies globally, has resulted in the development of a new spirit of enterprise and the increased farmer’s need for more responsibility in running their farm business. Multistage random sampling technique was used to select a total of 120 respondents used for the study. Primary data were collected using structured questionnaires. Both descriptive and inferential statistics was used to achieve the objectives of the study. Results showed that the farmers are within the average productive age of 44 years and an average household size of 6 persons. Meanwhile, despite the participation of the farming households in entrepreneurial activities, its development has not been fully embraced. Hence, at 0.05 (P=0.05) level of significance of entrepreneurial development has not contributed much in reducing poverty among the farming household in the area. The development and acquisition of entrepreneurship skills among the farmers were constrained by inadequate market opportunities, poor access to credit facility, inadequate market information, poor managerial skills, inadequate power supply, high taxation, and poor government policies on entrepreneurial development. Despite the problems confronting the development of entrepreneurship among the farming households, the study concluded that entrepreneurial development has contributed in poverty reduction in the area. The study however, recommended adequate entrepreneurship development programmes for farmers while addressing factors that hinder its growth and development as a way of actualising the current transformation agenda of the present federal government of Nigeria on poverty eradication through farming activities.