Empirical Determination of Socioeconomic Status Categories of Agropastoralists in North-Central, Nigeria Empirical Determination of Socioeconomic Status Categories of Agropastoralists in North-Central, Nigeria

Abstract

Socioeconomic status (SES) categories of agropastoralists were identified to contribute to better decisionmaking regarding social intervention among the respondents. Four-stage sampling technique comprising simple random sampling and cluster sampling was employed to select respondents from the three states of North-Central Nigeria. This comprises 9 Agricultural Development Program, 9 local government areas, and 36 agropastoralist clusters to arrive at the sample size of 557. Data were collected through the use of questionnaire containing 40 validated indicators of SES. The descriptive analytical tools (mean, median, and standard deviation) were used to arrive at the classification. Three categories “lower,†“middle,†and “upper†SES were identified for better inferences on certain characteristics and behavioral tendencies of agropastoralists in North-Central Nigeria. The result shows that 50.8% and 17.1% of the respondents were in lower and upper SES categories respectively. Pearson reveals that there was a significant positive relationship between SES and cosmopoliteness, attitude to innovation, leadership, and adoption of innovation. Since there existed relationship between SES and these characteristics, development agencies and agricultural extension experts should utilize any of these characteristics for improvement of the lower class among the respondents.