An Assessment of Vegetable Farming in Plateau State: The Dialectics of Rural Poverty (1970 to 2019), Nigeria

Abstract

Plateau State is regarded as the home of vegetables in Nigeria. Being the home of vegetables, it is expected or assumed that vegetable farmers are heavily rich, with large income generation from the business. But reverse is case! This paper in its understanding attempts to examine the oxymoron of this argument. The main thrust of this paper is to make clear the contradiction as to why vegetable farmers in Plateau State still remain poor despite their enormous production. The analysis of this paper offers important re-examination of the vegetable Value Chain Analysis (VCA) and to show, in spite of the profit generated by rural farmers, hunger and poverty still ravages their household. The emerging finding of this paper is that poverty remains a stark reality among vegetable farmers in rural communities in Plateau State. It is within this perspective that the central argument of this paper lies in the dialectical relationship between vegetable production and rural poverty; which the paper defined as ‘inseparable nexus.' This paper adopts the historical approach as a methodology for qualitative research. The submission of this paper suggests that poverty lies at the bottom of plentiful.