The study investigated the knowledge levels of orphan crops among farmers in Kwara State, Nigeria using primary data collected from 80 farmers randomly selected from Edu Local Government Area of Kwara State, Nigeria. It was found that farmers are generally aware of them but are not much involved in their production. The alternative use of cassava for ethanol production has the potential to reduce the number of poor farmers from 55% to 47% based on 50% of the mean of gross income or from 90% to 57.5% based on $1/day. The farmers should be encouraged to engage in the production of these orphan crops for their alternative uses as a quick fix for poverty.