THE EFFECT OF PRESUMPTIVE MALARIA ON RURAL FARMING HOUSEHOLDS' INCOME IN OSUN STATE, NIGERIA.

Abstract

This study was carried out to examine the effects of Presumptive Malaria, defined in terms of
Workdays Lost to Presumptive Malaria (WDLPM) on the income of rural farming households
inOsun State. A three-stage sampling technique was used to collect data from 171 farming
households. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and Instrumental Variable Regression
(ivreg) model at α . The analysis shows that annual farm income was ₦426,839.50k
0.05
andpresumptive malaria episodes per household were 17.49±4.28 while the average WDLPM was
73.42±23.87. The ivreg results indicate that age and sex of household head, family labour, distance to
the health center, use of mosquito nets, and malaria awareness campaign have significant effects on
the number of WDLPM. The coefficient of WDLPM was negative(β=-0.00168)and statistically
significant at the 5% level. The result confirmed that households lost a substantial part of their
income to malaria and missing workdays and recommended that government should give priority
attention to malaria control programmes and improvement in the healthcare delivery system. Also,
free distribution of mosquito nets must be vigorously pursued and adequately extended to rural areas
to improve their income generation ability

Keywords: : Presumptive malaria, Farming households, workdays lost.