ON-FARM INCOME DIVERSIFICATION DECISIONS AMONG RURAL FARM HOUSEHOLDS IN ENUGU STATE, NIGERIA.

There has been a drive on the part of consumers, producers, researchers and policy makers for a transition toward a new phase of agriculture. Diversifying income among farm households is critical to this drive. This study therefore investigated the on-farm income diversification decisions of rural farm households in Anambra State. The descriptive survey involved 235 farm households randomly selected from three agricultural zones in Enugu State, Nigeria. Three research questions were posed to guide the conduct of the study. A 23- item structured questionnaire which had a reliability co-efficient of 0.78 was used to collect data. Data were analysed using mean, frequency and exploratory factor analysis. Results showed that fortytwo percent of the household heads were within the productive age range of 41-50 years. Farming was the major occupation of the respondents with majority having a household size of not more than two hectares. Average annual on-farm income was N158,000.00, N132,000.00 and N215,000.00 for crop farming, livestock farming and mixed farming respectively. The constraints in raising income from the various sources of farm income were institutional, financial and infrastructural constraints. Based on these findings, some recommendations were made that include farmers should include highly valued agricultural products in their farm activities which will boost diversification selection and therefore increase farm income. Youths should be encouraged to participate in on-farm income diversification since they are better positioned to diversify farming activities.