Impact of Agricultural Programmes on Smallholder Farmers’ Inclusive Growth in Southwest Nigeria

Abstract

This study was conducted to examine inclusive growth in agricultural projects, among smallholder farmers in Southwest, Nigeria. The study specifically describes the socioeconomic characteristics of the smallholder farmers, estimates the determinants of inclusiveness of smallholder farmers in agricultural projects, measures the effectiveness of the features of Agricultural projects in supporting inclusive growth, and determines the effects of growth in the projects on farmers' productivity. A multi-stage sampling technique was used. Primary data were collected with the aid of well-structured questionnaire from ninety (90) participants and ninety (90) non-participants of three agricultural projects (FADAMA, Root and Tuber Expansion Programme and National Programme for Food Security) with guided interview. Data were analyzed using descriptive analysis, tobit regression, social opportunity function and t-test analysis. It was gathered from the study that most of the smallholder farmers were male (72.8 percent) with mean age of 50.9 years, they have relatively high household size of 9.0. Over 80.0 percent of the smallholder farmers had access to primary education, the mean years spent in formal education was 7.5. They have spent average of 18.4 years in farming, with standard deviation of 9.1. It was also discovered that they have access to market (60.6 percent), agricultural information (66.1 percent) and credit (52.2 percent). Farm size, educational level, farm experience, access to market, agricultural income, access to credit, access to agricultural information have positive likelihood of increasing the level of inclusiveness. But age and farm distance were negatively related. Factors that significantly affect inclusiveness among smallholder farmers were access to market at 10 percent (co efficient = 0.3), access to credit at 5 percent (co-efficient = 0.2), farm experience at 5 percent (co-efficient = 0.2), and agricultural income at 1 percent (co-efficient = 0.4). Most of the opportunities of agricultural projects were not inclusive, except increase in income and gender equity. There was significant effect of growth on farmers' productivity. It was recommended that bottom-top approach should be used in executing agricultural projects, also capacity building should be encouraged among smallholder farmers. Smallholder farmers should be given easy access to market and credit as this will increase their level of inclusiveness in agricultural projects. The youths should be encouraged to go into farming, because they have enough strength to be included in emerging poverty reduction projects.

Farmers’ propensity to use reality television shows for information on climate-smart agriculture strategies in southwestern Nigeria

“…Results presented in Table 1 show that a greater percentage of the farmers were male (55.4%) and married (83.5%) with a mean age of 44.9 ± 12.7 years, suggesting that the field of agriculture is still quite male-dominated. This corroborates the report of Olofinsao et al (2017) that most smallholder farmers in southwestern Nigeria are male and married. There is an even distribution of farmers having primary education (33.1%) and secondary education (33.1%), with just a few having tertiary education (15.7%).…”