ABSTRACT

This study examined the nature and determinants of household poverty of lagoon and coastal fishing communities in Lagos State. The sample size was made up of 210 fishing (35 female and 175 male–headed) households from 25 lagoon and 10 coastal fishing communities. Data were collected on bi-monthly basis from January to December 2000. Analytical techniques used were descriptive statistics, Foster, Greer and Thorbecke (FTG) weighted poverty index, ANOVA and the logit model.
Average monthly income among the non-owners of outboard engines and owners range between N3,360.26 and N60,125.70. Savings from earnings by non-owners of outboard engines and owners increased from 0.0% to 42.5%. The Mean per Adult Equivalent Household Expenditure (MPAEHE) ranged from N359.76 for the first decile to N3,806.97 for the tenth decile. Percentage of the total expenditure spent on food decreased from 85.6% for the first decile to 48.4% in the tenth decile. The ANOVA result revealed that MPAEHE of the dry and wet seasons were significantly different (p<0.01). A monthly poverty line of N829.32 was obtained from the average MPAEHE of N1,243.98 for the study area.
The FGT analysis revealed that the incidence of poverty among the fishing households increased with increase in household size, age of household head, child dependency ratio, number of wives and poor access roads. In addition, living in lagoon communities, female headship of household and lack of formal education were associated with household poverty. It was observed that poverty incidence was lower for those who had access to credit, owned outboard engine and various types of fishing gears. In general, 52.4% of households in the study area was below the poverty line.
Logit analysis showed that 84.1% of the variation in being poor was explained by the significance of the coefficients of the following variables; level of education (p<0.01), membership of co-operative societies (p<0.05), possession of appropriate fishing inputs (p<0.05) and participation in off-farm jobs especially in the lagoon communities (p<0.01). These had negative relationship with being poor. However, the coefficients of female household head-ship (p<0.05), age (p<0.05), number of wives (p<0.01), child dependency ratio (p<0.01), and poor quality of road (p<0.05) had positive relationship with being poor.
In conclusion, poverty alleviation strategies should follow a multidimensional approach in order to achieve considerable improvement in the living standards of the poor fisher-folks.