Benue State University, Makurdi

Impact of International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) Programme on Livelihood of Smallholder Rice Farmers in Benue State, Nigeria

Jacob T. Tyagher, Naomi O. Doki and David T. Akighir

Abstract

The study investigated the impact of IFAD programme on output, income, and poverty level among smallholder rice farmers in Benue State, Nigeria. The study used a survey design and a sample of 348 smallholder rice farmers who benefited from the IFAD rice value chain programme. The study employed the Generalized Method of Moment (GMM) technique and the logit regression model. The findings of the study reveal that, benefiting from the IFAD rice value chain programme has positive and significant impact on the output and incomes of the beneficiaries in the study area. Also, the findings indicated that, benefiting from the IFAD rice value chain programme has the probability of reducing poverty among the beneficiaries. Based on the findings of this study, the following recommendations are made, First, government at all levels should give the programme utmost priority by regularly and timely paying counterpart fund to ensure the continuity and the sustainability of the IFAD/VCDP in the state. Second, the programme should be upscale to more local government areas in the State to capture more farmers and processors with a view to reducing poverty in the state. Third, to achieve the best value for money under the IFAD/VCDP in the state, the government should increase the tempo of handling the menace of farmers’/herders’ crisis in the State and concerted efforts be made to develop the potential irrigation areas in the state to boost dry season farming in the State. Lastly, IFAD should consider including key crops like sesame seed(benniseed) soyabeans and yam in the programme and to allow the smallholder farmers to decide the kind of support they in terms of farming inputs, machineries, fertilizer, or seeds as there need at different locations may be different.

DOWNLOAD COMPLETE ARTICLE HERE (CLICK)