Poverty incidence in developing countries as Nigeria
has been a rural phenomenon that requires
development agencies and other stakeholder’s
intervention. The poverty profiles of participating
and non participating rural farm women in Fadama
III development project in Gombe State Nigeria was
studied and analyzed in 2013. The study analyzed
socio economic characteristics of rural farm women,
their poverty levels and problems faced by
beneficiary women in the programme. A multistage
random sampling technique was used in the selection
of six Local Government Areas (LGAs), Fadama
Community Associations (FCAs), Fadama User
Groups (FUGs), participating and non-participating
rural farmers. A structured questionnaire was
administered to 360 randomly selected rural women
farmers (180 participating and 180 non participating
rural women farmers). Data were analyzed with
descriptive statistics like frequencies, percentages,
mean and poverty gap analysis. The study revealed
that participating rural women and non participating
rural farmers had mean ages of 35.5 years and 36.72
years respectively and acquired secondary
education. Also Fadama women farmers had mean
farm size of 2.69 while the non Fadama farmers
farmed on 2.39 hectares of land. Both farmers
groups had a monthly income of N 75, 59.28
(Fadama III Rural Women Farmers) and N27,
505.56 (Non Fadama III Rural Women). The poverty
gap analysis showed that 68.33 % and 72.22 % of the
participating and non-participating Fadama III rural
farm-women were poor respectively and will require
36.56 % and 61.37 % of their poverty line to get out
of poverty. The study therefore recommends timely
supply of farm inputs by the project, prompt payment
of counterpart funds by relevant agencies and
replication of the project to other communities in
order to reduce rural poverty in the state