International Journal of Arts & Sciences, CD-ROM. ISSN: 1944-6934 :: 08(04):365–378 (2015) HEALTH DETERMINANTS OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF UGHELLI SOUTH IN NIGERIA Egbe B. Etowa, Oghenemine D. Onovwie and Seye Babatunde , University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria Josephine B. Etowa University of Ottawa, Canada The study employed an interdisciplinary approach to explicate the association between health and agriculture in rural Nigeria. While measuring the presence and severity of farmers’ poor health conditions in economic terms, the study determined the effects of these aftermaths of ill-health on households’ agricultural productivity in Ugheli South in Nigeria. A non-proportional stratified random sampling technique was used to select 90 farming households from the six major farming communities in the study setting. Structured questionnaires were administered to fifteen (15) households from each stratum. In addition, qualitative information exploring self-perceptions of ill-health were collected for data triangulation. A multiple regression model was employed to investigate the health-related determinants of agricultural productivity among the households. Results demonstrated that households’ agricultural productivity was adversely influenced by aftermaths of ill-health (funeral expenditures). Preliminary findings showed that healthcare was accessible but inadequate. Thus the effect of the availability of healthcare on agricultural productivity was unaccounted for in the regression model. Keywords: Households, Health, Illness, Agriculture, Productivity. Introduction Agriculture remains the potential economic backbone of many developing countries, including Nigeria. This is because majority (approximately 70 %) of the population is employed in this sector. Secondly, in spite of its underdeveloped state, the sector remains the second largest contributor to the nations GDP after oil. Because there are very few commercial or government owned farm, most of the contributions to national GDP from agriculture comes from the surpluses of subsistent farming. The subsistent farmers domiciled in the rural areas constitute majority of the food producers in the nations. The potential of this agrarian populace to contribute to the nation’s economic advancement in agriculture is immense. This is achievable when agricultural productivity is stepped up. Productivity in this sense stems from the ability of the farm system to maximize the level of outputs attainable from a given level of resources; be it human or material. . A key factor of productivity is the health of mass of this rural agrarian populace. This is because the interactions between health and farming aggregate outputs are well-documented. The capacity for productive work is adversely affected when the population suffers from debilitating diseases and malnutrition. Subsistent farmers in Nigeria are a case in point, they reside in remote villages where 365