Economic activities of migrant rural dwellers in Irewole local government area of Osun state, Nigeria

Inadequate natural resources and environmental problems have led to the migration of different ethnic groups across the ecological zones of Nigeria. Therefore, this study examines the economic activities of migrant rural dwellers in Irewole Local Govern-ment Area of Osun State, Nigeria. Two communities, Wasinmi and Bamigbola were purposely selected for this study and one hundred and eighty-eight migrants were ran-domly interviewed. The result showed that majority of the respondents were within the age range of 16-47 years old, married and of the following ethnic backgrounds Yoruba, Ibo, Ashanti from Ghana, Igede (Benue State), Ibira (Kogi State) and Ngas (Plateau State). They were literate with household size of less than six. They engaged in the following economic activities – food crop production, livestock production, trad-ing, hired labour on farms, transport business, processing of oil palm, cassava and other minor economic activities like honey collection, digging of wells and sponge mak-ing. These activities were done for both household consumption and sales. Majority of these activities are carried out in both wet and dry seasons with the exception of hired labour, honey collection, digging of wells and sponge making which were done during the dry season.Majority identified inadequate funds, water supply, low sales, lack of basic amenities, health hazards, and lack of agricultural input as major problems fac-ing them in the study area. Result of analysis on test of relationship between educa-tional status and level of involvement in economic activities is significant (x2 = 7.624, p  0.05). Significant difference exists in the economic activities of male and female re-spondents (t = 2.42, p  0.05). It is therefore recommended that a soft revolving loan scheme, extension services and other social amenities be provided to improve the eco-nomic activities of migrant rural dwellers in the study area.