Risk Attitudes and Poverty Status Nexus: A Study of Fish Farmers in Ondo State, Nigeria

Aims: This study examined risk attitudes and poverty status nexus among fish farmers in Nigeria.

Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted in Ondo State, Nigeria between July, 2014 and October, 2014.

Methodology: Multistage sampling procedure was used to select 200 fish farmers from Ondo State. Descriptive statistics, Foster Greer Thorbecke Poverty Measures, Safety-First Model and Ordered Probit Regression Model were used to analyse the data.

Results: Findings from the study indicated that 42.5% of the respondents were poor as majority of the respondents identified Natural risks (29.0%) and Economic risks (30.4%) as the sources of risks. The study further revealed that majority (57.0%) of the respondents in the study area were high risk-averse. Experience, household size, income diversification, poverty status, membership of association and tertiary education were the significant factors that affected fish farmers’ risk attitudes.

Conclusion: It could be concluded that poverty status significantly influenced the risk attitudes of the respondents, which is an indication that there is an important connection between poverty status and risk attitudes among fish farmers in the study area. Therefore, individuals, government and non-governmental organizations should put programmes and policies that are capable of alleviating poverty in place in order to improve the ability of fish farmers to take risks in the study area.