Volume 38 Issue 1 (March 2023) 65 RESEARCH ARTICLE Bhartiya Krishi Anusandhan Patrika, Volume 38 Issue 1: 65-70 (March 2023) Influence of Poverty Gap and Severity Index on Production among Cassava based Farmers in Southern Nigeria E. Agbachom Emmanuel 1 , B. Onabe Maria 2 , Abayan Victor 1 , Anoh Regina 2,3 , Ajigo Ikutal 2 , Otu I. Ettah 1 , Godwin M. Ubi 5 10.18805/BKAP595 ABSTRACT Background: Poverty has been a prevailing challenge among individuals and farmers most especially in the Nigerian economy. The study analyzed poverty status of cassava farmers in Agrarian cassava region in Cross River State, Nigeria. Methods: A multistage sampling technique was adopted in selecting 120 respondents using structured questionnaire between 2019 and 2022. Data obtained were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Result: Results showed that the poverty line estimated across all gender was N 17,770.80 and 64.15% of the male farmers were non- poor while 35.85% of them were poor. Male recorded the highest poverty head count ratio (P  ) of 0.358. The poverty gap (P 1 ) and severity of poverty (P 2 ) among male farmers were 9.8 and 4.8 per cent, respectively. Similarly, poverty head count (P 0 ), poverty gap (P 1 ) and severity of poverty (P 2 ) for female farmers was 32.8%, 9.7% and 4% respectively. Drudgery/ inadequate access to modern equipment (2.74), high cost of labour (2.64), high perishability of cassava (2.60), high cost of transportation (2.55), fluctuation in prices (2.43) and lack of improved variety (2.38) were the serious constraint faced by cassava farmers during their production in the study area. Policies should be directed towards enhancing farmer income and reducing income inequality through access to credit facility for cassava based farmers. Key words: Cassava farmers, Poverty status, Production constraints. 1 Department of Agricultural Economics, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Calabar, Nigeria. 2 Department of Vocational Education, Faculty of Education, University of Calabar, Nigeria. 3 Department of Forestry and Wildlife Resource Management, Nigeria. 4 Faculty of Agriculture, Forestry and Wildlife Resources Management University of Calabar, Nigeria. 5 Department of Genetics and Biotechnology, University of Calabar, Calabar, Nigeria. Corresponding Author: Godwin M. Ubi, Department of Genetics and Biotechnology, University of Calabar, Calabar, Nigeria. Email: ubiology.gu@gmail.com How to cite this article: Emmanuel, E.A., Maria, B.O., Victor, A., Regina, A., Ikutal, A., Ettah, O.I. and Ubi, G.M. (2023). Influence of Poverty Gap and Severity Index on Production among Cassava based Farmers in Southern Nigeria. Bhartiya Krishi Anusandhan Patrika. 38(1): 65-70. doi: 10.18805/BKAP595. Submitted: 20-09-2022 Accepted: 26-12-2022 Online: 28-01-2023 INTRODUCTION Agriculture is the economic stronghold of many households in Nigeria including Cross River State. It contributes about 45 per cent of GDP and employs nearly two-thirds of the country’s total labour force and it is the source of livelihood for about 90 per cent of the rural population and provides raw materials for agro-allied industries (Chauvin et al., 2012). Despite the huge agricultural endowment and potential of Nigeria, hunger still characterizes the majority of the population. About 64.4% and 83.7% of the population live below the poverty line of US$1.25 and US$2 per person per day, respectively (Edet and Etim, 2018). Nigeria faces a lot of poverty crises including that of attaining food security, which was one of the millennium development goals (FAO, 2003). Some of these challenges are caused by natural resources (soil, water and climate), faulty micro economies, agricultural policies, bad economy, etc. hence, smallholder farmers in Nigeria are poverty stricken thereby putting the household welfare of the farmer at risk of survival. Poverty is a situation of low income and/or low consumption and people are considered poor when their measured standard of living is below a minimum acceptable level of poverty known as poverty line (Olaopa et al., 2006). However, in Cross River State, where above 80% of the populations are rural dwellers, poverty has reached an alarming rate and possible mitigation measures must be put in place to ameliorate this deplorable social condition. It has been established that majority of the poor in Nigeria and Sub-Sahara Africa live in rural areas and depend on agriculture as their principal means of survival (UNDP, 2012). Therefore it is essential that significant increases in agricultural productivity be supported and achieved at rural household level (World Bank, 2017) and this can only be achieved if the factors that determined poverty status of the farm households are empirically determined and addressed. Conceptual framework The orthodox Western views of poverty, reflected in the “Vicious circle” hypothesis states that a poor person is poor because he is poor and may remain poor, unless the