The Effect of Backyard Agriculture on Household Income in the COVID-19 Era in Southeast Nigeria

Abstract

Poverty is a major menace in Nigeria, and the onset of COVID-19 complicated the issue by limiting people's economic activities and livelihoods. Thus, there is a need for households to engage in sustainable economic activities to cope with economic shocks. Backyard agriculture could play a critical role in enhancing household income, especially during economic shocks; yet there exists a dearth of empirical information on this. Hence the need for this study, which investigated the effect of backyard agriculture on household income in southeast Nigeria. The study employed a multistage sampling procedure to get to the respondents. The data collected from randomly selected 480 households were analysed using descriptive statistics, t-tests, and multiple regression. The study revealed that households that engaged in backyard agriculture had a higher income (N130,125=USD 204.84) than households that did not engage in backyard agriculture (N64,700=USD 101.85). Thus, there is a difference of N65,425 (USD 102.99) between the average income of households that engaged in backyard agriculture and households that did not engage in backyard agriculture. The t-test results indicate that the difference between their income was significant at 1%. The regression result further shows that backyard agriculture significantly increased the income level of households. Thus, backyard agriculture is a crucial tool to enhance household economic status and livelihood during health and economic shocks. Based on these, this study recommends the promotion of backyard agriculture among households to boost household income by the government through agricultural extension agents.