Impact of Fadama II Project on Skill Acquisition in Agricultural Practices Among Rural Farmers in The North Central Zone, Nigeria

Abstract

The study was conducted to determine the impact of Fadama II project services on skill acquisition in agricultural practices among rural farmers in the North Central Zone, Nigeria. To enable the researcher to achieve the purpose of study nine (6) research questions were generated and answered, also five (5) hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. Ex post facto Research The design was adopted for this study. The area of the study was the North Central zone of Nigeria comprising of Abuja the Federal Capital Territory, Niger, Kogi, Nassarawa Kaduna, Benue and Plateau states. The population for the study consisted of 93,084 beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries of the project. The sample for the study consisted of 465 respondent comprising of 281 beneficiaries and 184 non-beneficiaries selected by stratified simple random sampling technique. Interviews, Focused Group Discussion and questionnaire were the major instruments for data collection. The researcher developed the same sets of instruments that were administered to the two groups. The instruments were validated by two senior lecturers in the Department of Vocational Teacher Education, University of Nigeria Nsukka and a Chief Agricultural Officer with the National Fadama Office Abuja. The reliability of the instrument was obtained using Cronbach Alpha Reliability Test. A reliability coefficient of 0.97 was obtained. Qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis were employed in the study. The standard deviation, mean and t-test statistics were employed to analyze the data collected. Among the major findings of this study was the identification of skills acquired in agricultural practices by farmers in the North Central zone. Also, the study revealed that as a result of the Fadama project services, skills have been acquired to an average level in natural resource use, agricultural input use and animal production practices. Furthermore, skills were acquired to a fair level in crop production practices and selected micro livestock enterprises (snail farming, bee keeping and hunting). Results revealed that beneficiaries acquired higher levels of skills when compared with non beneficiaries in the areas of natural resource use, agricultural input use, crop production, animal production and micro livestock enterprises. Although the differences were insignificant, it was an indication that the project impacted positively on the beneficiaries. The implication of the findings is that the continued implementation of the Fadama project and its expansion to areas yet to benefit from it will enable more farmers acquire relevant agricultural skills for the adoption of right practices. The acquisition of these skills surely will translate into sustained increase in productivity, income and standard of living of rural farmers in particular and the nation at large. Among the major recommendations based on the findings of this study is that Government should encourage more rural farmers to participate in the Fadama project. This could be achieved through aggressive multimedia campaign aimed at showcasing the dividend of the project no matter how small they may be. Also recommended is that all agricultural intervention projects in Nigeria should adopt the Fadama II project’s demand driven strategy in identification and execution of project in our communities.