Impact of National Fadama Development Project II on Small-Scale Farmers’ Income in Ogun State: Implications for Financial Support to Farmers

Abstract

The study assessed the impact of the Fadama Development Project Phase II on farmers’ income as well as the problems and constraints to efficient production and productivity in the Fadama endowed Communities in Obafemi-Owode Local Government Area of Ogun State. Multi-stage stratified systematic random sampling technique was used in this study to select three villages each, for both beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries. Data were collected from a total of 90randomly sampled households. These data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistical analytical tools.. Most of the farmers were between the age  30 and 59 years with an average ages of  46.3years and 43.6 years for beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries respectively.  Majority have no formal education and large household sizes, (average of 10members/ household). The vast experience of the respondents in farming, (average of 12.5 years) was found to be a facilitating factor in productivity improvement in the localities. Gross Margin analysis of beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries revealed a nominal difference between the income of both the beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries cultivating less than one hectares of farm land though the analysis of the difference of Means using the two sample t-test assuming unequal variances, revealed that there is no statistically significant difference in the incomes of groups of respondents at that level of operation. The analyses of the difference of means at the same scale of operation,  for both groups with < 2 hectares and  ≥2.0 hectares  of land, showed significant differences at 5% and 10% levels of probability, giving the t-values of 0.0411 and 0.0504  respectively. The null hypotheses were rejected and the alternatives accepted for both levels of operation.  Some of the problems discovered on the operation of the farmers in the communities are inadequate infrastructural and storage facilities, inadequate capital for the farm operations, insufficient access to micro-credit facilities and other support services by members of the Fadama endowed communities based on the findings of the study. The study however recommended that better performance and improvement in resource use efficiency and participation of the farmers, could be enhanced, if relevant policies are formulated and geared towards support for agricultural sector increase in the net farm income of farmers in such a way that the marginal income will increase and more investments on agriculture and rural infrastructures could also be improved. The need to implement policies to ensure sustainable integration of the Fadama Users’ Association’s capital needs into the operations of the Micro-finance and other Banks through  mandatory bank lending to agricultural sector participants was also suggested by the study.