ABSTRACT

 This study focused on the incidence of poverty and social welfare among rural and urban households in Abia State. The study was conducted in the Umuahia agricultural zone of Abia state; Umuuahia North and Ikwuano representing urban and rural household were purposely chosen for the study. A total of 100 questionnaire were distributed to respondents (50 each from -the LGA's). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequency and percentage, poverty indices, Gini coefficient and social welfare model. The study showed that most of the respondents in the urban area ended at tertiary level of education with the percentage of 54 compared to the rural household heads that have only 24 percentage. From the regression determinant of welfare, the study showed that independent variables such as location, income, education have positive significant coefficient, while household size and age has a negative significant on the dependent variable (social welfare) with the semi- log chosen as the lead equation based on economic and statistical criteria. The findings revealed that poverty incidence (P0) of 0.36 and 0.22 were obtained for the rural and urban households respectively, Poverty Gap (P1) were 0.20 and 0.12 and finally Poverty Severity (P2) of 0.04 and 0.02 for the household's heads were also obtained. This poverty indices based on expenditure showed a Gini coefficient of 0.2680 and 0.2425 for rural (Ikwuano LGA) and urban (Umuahia North LGA) households. respectively. The major constraints faced by the farmers include bad roads, lack of fertilizer, pests and diseases and lack of funds among others. Finally, the state government should integrates adult education programme into their free and compulsory primary and secondary education programme in the state to ensure that farmers are educated on the.. ways of improving their household well being by sending their children to school which has a long—term effects of improving households welfare. Education will increase the income earning ability of the household either through access to their better economic opportunities or through increased output resulting from improved ability to adopt and use improved farming technologies.