Meeting the challenge of improving rural incomes in Africa will require some form of transformation out of the subsistence, low-input, and low-productivity farming systems that currently characterize much of rural Africa. So, there is need to investigate farmers’ characteristics which have influence on moving away from subsistence agriculture to commercial or market oriented agriculture. A multi-stage sampling technique was employed in the study and primary data was collected through the use of structured questionnaire. Three hundred and forty-two (342) questionnaire were retrieved and found useful for analysis out of four hundred (400) questionnaire administered. The analytical tools used were descriptive statistics, Probit Regression Model and Household Commercialization Index (HCI). The result showed that majority (78.95%) were male and the average age is 50.87±9.5 years. Majority (88.89%) were married with an average household size of 7±2.7 persons. The level of education was on the average as 69.6% of the respondents have completed either primary or secondary school. About 76% of the respondents have access to extension services. The result also showed that access to information on price of commodity (p<0.1), household size significantly (p< 0.01), farm size (p<0.01), farming experience (p<0.01) and access to extension workers (P<0.10) were the major determinants influencing output commercialization in the study area. There is a link between commercialization and information on price of commodity and farm size. Therefore, it is recommended that government, Non-governmental agencies and stakeholders synergize activities on dissemination of price information of commodities to aid commercializing agriculture in the country. Also, government should formulate policy that would make farmers have easy access to more farmland.

Commercialization, Determinants, Farming Households, Probit and Southwest