Shocks and Coping Strategies of Rural Households: Evidence from Ogo-Oluwa Local Government, Oyo State, Nigeria

Rural households in Nigeria are vulnerable to shock because of their limited capacity to make informed decision on secured coping strategies which is further aggravated by some households’ specific socio-economic characteristics. Attempts were made to identify shocks being faced by households’ heads and coping strategies. Multistage sampling technique was used to select 80 respondents and well structured questionnaire was used to collect data through in-depth interview. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics to describe households’ socio-economic variables; Probit analysis was also used to determine the relationship between personal socio-economic characteristics of the respondents, shocks and choice of coping actions. The results revealed that a large share of households experience multidimensional shocks, which are mainly associated to ecological but also suffer from other economic, demographic and social factors. Majority of households undertake coping actions in response to shocks; coping strategies employed but not limited to include borrowing, distress sales of assets, remittances, adjustment in food intake, drawing on savings. Educational status, household size, per capita income, shocks type, coping strategies, among others are found to significantly affect the choice of coping actions and are likely to have implications for households’ future welfare status.