EFFECT OF AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATION ON THE PRODUCTIVITY AND POVERTY STATUS OF RICE FARMERS IN KANO STATE, NIGERIA

EFFECT OF AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATION ON THE PRODUCTIVITY AND POVERTY STATUS OF RICE FARMERS IN KANO STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract:

The study was carried out to examine the effect of agricultural transformation on the beneficiary‟s productivity and poverty in Kano state Nigeria. A multi-stage sampling method was employed to select 571 respondents for the study. The first stage involves the random selection of two rice growing local government areas out of the three local governments that participated in the transformation project. The next stage was the selection of seven villages made up of three (3) from Bunkure and four (4) from Rano local government‟s areas. Data were collected through structured questionnaires on socio-economic and institutional variables such as respondent‟s age, marital status, gender, household size and level of education. Also, information‟s were collected on respondent‟s income, input and output quantities as well as their expenditure. Descriptive statistics was used to describe the socio-economic variable as it affects participation in the project and production activities. Cragg‟s model was used to examine the influence of some socio-economic and institutional variables on participation and intensity of use of the package of practices. Furthermore, the FGT was used to analyze the poverty status while the propensity score matching, LATE model, t-statistics and Z-test were used to examine the effect of the project on the farmers. Results from the study shows that farm size ((10%), gender of household head (5%), communication asset (10%), ownership of Oxen (10%), extension agent contact (5%) and Market distance (10%) influenced respondent‟s decision to participate. Also, the intensity of use of package of practices was influenced significantly by farm size (10%), household size (10%) and communication asset ownership (5%) respectively. On respondents productivity, the study revealed a significant difference of about 127 kg/ha in rice productivity between participants and non participants. Also, the LATE estimates revealed an average treatment effect on the treated (ATE0) of about 222.98kg/ha and 347.60kg/ha for the IPWS and the LARF respectively. Moreover, it was revealed that the project had significantly impacted the poverty status of the poorat 1% level with an observed increase in welfare of about 9.88%. Furthermore, the project had a significant impact of about N6732 and N 34780 on the participant‟s total expenditure for the IPWS and the LARF respectively. There were complains of fluctuations of input/output prices insect pests and inadequate extension visits It was recommended that farmers‟ information and sensitization system should be greatly improved. Also, attention should be given to well organized extension visits for the farmers. Furthermore, priority should also be given to formidable marketing system in agricultural projects for input output delivery for the participants

EFFECT OF AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATION ON THE PRODUCTIVITY AND POVERTY STATUS OF RICE FARMERS IN KANO STATE, NIGERIA