Analysis of Socioeconomic Factors Influencing Saving Among Rural Smallhoder Farmers in Gwaram LGA, Jigawa State, Nigeria
The study was conducted to analyze socioeconomic factors influencing saving among rural smallholder farmers in Gwaram LGA area of Jigawa State. Data was collected with the aid of well structured questionnaires. A total of 60 respondents were selected and interviewed. The sample was drawn through multi-stage sampling technique. Total of five (5) of villages, one from each of the five districts in the LGA were selected. The data was analyzed by both descriptive and inferential statistics. The results revealed that the average age of the farmers was 37 years with minimum and maximum age of 22 and 53 respectively. The average household size was 11 persons per household. About 79.33% of the respondents were married and about 28.33% acquired secondary education with 98.22% having farming as the main occupation. The average farm size was 2.33ha and about 60% of the respondents had less 1ha of farmland. Majority (>60%) of the farmers own their farmlands. The average annual income from farm and off-farm operation was N128, 275 while the average monthly savings was N5000. Estimated annual cost of production was between N35000 to 89,000. More than 90% of the farmers depend solely on personal savings as source of finance for farm operations.51.7 % save their money in kind forms. Factors such as farm size, age, years of education, annual income from farm and off-farm and household size were significant variables that determines the amount of money to be saved by farmers. Regression analysis further revealed that, there is 61% variation between the dependent variable and the independent variables. Household size (-270) and age (-1.715) negatively affect monthly saving of the respondents at both 1% and 10% level of significance respectively. DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2014.v4n5p99