Abstract: In the quest to mitigate rural poverty and agricultural land degradation, a market-based incentive mechanism called Payment for Environmental Services (PES) was found as a useful antidote for both rural poverty and degradation of agricultural land. It was observed that the phenomena (i.e. poverty and environmental resources degradation) could not be divorced from each other (Obayelu, 2010). However a need for identification of the poor is inevitable. Although many authors argued that property rights (land ownership rights) is a prerequisite for PES to be effective. This study stands to think in a contrary dimension. It critically intends to conduct the research in the Oyo state farm settlements, where no property rights were given to the farmers. This paper argued on the premise of lack of provison for social security and access to credit facilities, in Nigerian rural settings as the potential ‘bait’ for PES effectiveness and willingness of the farmers to participate in it. Nevertheless the extent of participation will be determined by the type of attributes PES offer to the rural farmers.