Economic Impact of Malaria Shock on Farm Productivity in Lagos State, Nigeria

Abstract

Malaria, is not only a health issue but also an economic problem. At the household level, affects productivity of the people and their assets acquisition capacity. Malaria therefore, has a direct impact on household income, wealth, labour productivity and labour market participation of both sick and care givers. As much as 13 percent of total small farming household expenditure in Nigeria is currently being used in treating malaria while many are simply too poor to pay for adequate prevention and treatment of the disease. The broad objective of this study is to analyse the economic impact of malaria health shock and farm productivity in Lagos state. The main source of data was a primary data sourced through structured questionnaire that was administered on 150 respondents with only 128 questionnaires returned. The data was anaylsed using descriptive statistics, regression analysis and stochastic frontier production function. The result of the analysis revealed that the number of illness episodes ( = .333, t = 4.525, p<.05), financial cost of subsistence ( = .227, t = 2.855, p<.05) and financial cost of drugs and herbs ( = .333, t = 4.525, p<.05) have a significant positive effect on financial costs of health of farmers. It was also revealed that household size ( = -.389, t = -56.614, p<.05), gender ( = -.983, t = -.983, p<.05), total days of malaria incapacitation ( = -1.218, t = 17.065, p<.05) and Total income lost due to malaria in naira ( = -1.243, t = -1.243p<.05) have a significant negative impact on the age of farmers. The Table also revealed that the size of the farm. ( = .1353, t= -17.034, p<.05), educational status ( = .0183, t= 14.213, p<.05) and. No of days lost due to malaria incapacitation ( = .055, t= 83.019, p<.05) have a significant positive impact on the age of farmers. The study also found that occupation ( = .000, t = 3.000, p<.05), marital status ( = .607, t = 46.470, p<.05), household size ( = 1.060, t = 75.488, p<.05), educational status ( = 140, t = 13.677, p<.05), and farming output ( =.560, t = 67.840, p<.05), have a significant positive impact on the age of house head farmers. Finally, it was revealed thatcost of labour use ( = .007, t = .073, p>.05) and inefficiency ( = -.169, t = -.064, p>.05) do not have a significant effect on food production efficiency level of farmers. The study then concluded that malaria health shock has a significant negative impact on farm productivity in Lagos State. This corroborate the position that farmer are the most vulnerable to malaria sometimes because they do not have enough money, or sometimes because they do not have health care services in the rural areas and thus recommended that Nigerian government need to provide accessible health facilities to the rural dwellers who are mainly into farming and there is a need to carry out a regular malaria prevention sensitization programmes for the farmers