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Household
livelihood across Africa 50 years after independence have
recorded lean improvements especially in terms of access to
essential production inputs. Household rate of land access,
means of access, welfare and investment capacities, land
cost and the linkage between access to land and the above
measured parameters were investigated using a set of
questionnaires administered to urban and rural settlements.
Descriptive results showed that poverty incidence was high
(60%) especially in rural areas is distant from expectations
of the MDGs. Lands were obtained majorly through land
purchase indicative of growing land commercialization whose
cost (per ha.) ranged from N500,000 to N1m. Access to land
(in rural, urban settlements) had low positive correlations
with age in both settlements (0.181, 0.163), with education
(0.183, 0.25) and welfare capacity (0.25, 0.82). Similarly,
regression line showed negative slopes, low but positive
coefficients (R2) with welfare poverty (R2=0.041) and
investment poverty (R2=0.017) indicating limiting influence
of different poverty forms to livelihood and household
productivity. Periodic review of land administration,
unified land policy thrust along the lines of reviving
interest especially among youths in agriculture through
incentives (tuition-free agricultural disciplines),
implementation synergy, capacity building and granting of
loans as financial safety net are key achievable policy
options.
Keywords: livelihood, poverty incidence, land
commercialization, household productivity, land policy
thrust, safety nets, implementation synergy
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