Despite the wide believe that income inequality and poverty differ among the female and male headed
households in Africa, very few studies have been conducted to empirically substantiate this. Therefore, this study
assessed income inequality and poverty in rural Nigeria from a gender perspective. The study revealed that income
was more evenly distributed among the female headed households than the male counterparts. Poverty incidence,
depth and severity were higher among the male headed households than the female counterparts. Number of
dependants and household size were the variables that significantly increased the probability of falling below the
poverty line among the respondents. Access to credit and contact with extension agents had significant poverty
reducing effects. It is recommended that more family planning awareness should be created, there should be social
security particularly for the female headed households with large number of dependants, constraints limiting
farmers’ access to credit should be identified and eliminated and the extension system in Nigeria should be
developed in order to increase number of extension visits to the farmers.