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The broad objective of this study is to examine the status of poverty among farm and non- farm households using the expenditure approach in Ekiti State, Nigeria. Specific objectives are to identify the socio-economics characteristics of selected households in the study area; determine the effect of socio-economics and demographic variables on the households poverty status; determine the incidence, depth, and severity of poverty among the households and examine the level of expenditure inequality among the households. The above objectives were achieved through the use of a multi-stage sampling technique. Descriptive analysis, multivariate probit model, Foster-Greer-Thorbecke measures of poverty technique , Lorenz curve and Gini-coefficient were used to analyse the data. The result revealed that the mean age of the household heads was 44years with large household size of 6.27 members on the average. 58.8 percent of the households lived in poverty in Ekiti State. FGT measure showed that the state´s poverty depth and severity were 0.116 and 0.035 respectively. The State Gini coefficient was 0.168.

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Dr.Femi Michael Oluwatusin is a Lecturer at the Department of Agricultural Economics and Ext., University of Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria. A consultant and an agricultural economist with experience in quantitative analysis, statistics, production economics and econometrics. He bagged his PhD from the Federal University of Technology, Akure,Nigeria.

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