The Nexus Between Pilfering Menace and Crop Farmers’ Income Shock: Evidence From Nigeria

Pilfering has a big impact on the crop farming industry and it is threatening the sustainability of the industry. To generate information that can be used to inform crop farmers on how to effectively mitigate pilferage on their farms, the study investigated the factors influencing pilferage and its effects on farmers’ income in Delta State, Nigeria. A multistage sampling method was applied to choose respondents for the study. A sample size of 135 farmers were carefully chosen. The study data was analyzed with descriptive statistics, binary logistic regression, linear regression and one-way ANOVA. The findings showed that they had a mean age of 48 years and were mostly females who were also married. Majority of them were educated. The mean family size was 7 people and average farming experience of 11years with mean farm size of 1.15ha. The result disclosed pilferage index of 0.68, suggesting that 68% of farmers were victims of pilfering. The findings revealed that plantain has the highest proportion of the crops pilfered with 46.5% while cassava was the least with 11.5%. The ANOVA result indicates a statistically significant difference (F = 177.633; p<0.000) in the mean of income losses to pilferage on the farms for the different selected crop types. Pilfering on farms was significantly influenced by age, farming experiences, educational status, farm size, household size, security, attractiveness of farm, employees with high number of dependents and distance or farm location. The findings showed that pilfering resulted to high cost of security, quitting farming activities, withdrawal from growing certain crops and reduction in output. Most of the respondents (78.5%) did not use any form of measure to curb the menace of pilferage on their farms. It was recommended that tackling of pilfering on the farms should involve the synergy among government, community and the farmers.

Pilfering has a big impact on the crop farming industry and it is threatening the sustainability of the industry. To generate information that can be used to inform crop farmers on how to effectively mitigate pilferage on their farms, the study investigated the factors influencing pilferage and its effects on farmers’ income in Delta State, Nigeria. A multistage sampling method was applied to choose respondents for the study. A sample size of 135 farmers were carefully chosen. The study data was analyzed with descriptive statistics, binary logistic regression, linear regression and one-way ANOVA. The findings showed that they had a mean age of 48 years and were mostly females who were also married. Majority of them were educated. The mean family size was 7 people and average farming experience of 11years with mean farm size of 1.15ha. The result disclosed pilferage index of 0.68, suggesting that 68% of farmers were victims of pilfering. The findings revealed that plantain has the highest proportion of the crops pilfered with 46.5% while cassava was the least with 11.5%. The ANOVA result indicates a statistically significant difference (F = 177.633; p<0.000) in the mean of income losses to pilferage on the farms for the different selected crop types. Pilfering on farms was significantly influenced by age, farming experiences, educational status, farm size, household size, security, attractiveness of farm, employees with high number of dependents and distance or farm location. The findings showed that pilfering resulted to high cost of security, quitting farming activities, withdrawal from growing certain crops and reduction in output. Most of the respondents (78.5%) did not use any form of measure to curb the menace of pilferage on their farms. It was recommended that tackling of pilfering on the farms should involve the synergy among government, community and the farmers.