Evaluation Of, Awareness And Accessibility Of Anchor Borrowers’ Programme To Smallholder Rice Farmers In Jigawa State.
- April 12, 2022
- Posted by: rsispostadmin
- Category: IJRIAS
International Journal of Research and Innovation in Applied Science (IJRIAS) | Volume VII, Issue III, March 2022 | ISSN 2454–6194
Wasila A. Mahmud*, Surayya Dahiru*, Sanusi Adamu*& Mahmud N. Usman
College of Agriculture, Hussaini Adamu Federal Polytechnic, Kazaure, Jigawa State, Nigeria
Dr. Mas’ud Adamu Library, Hussaini Adamu Federal Polytechnic, Kazaure, Jigawa State, Nigeria
Abstract
Nigeria is the largest rice producing country in West Africa, but also the second largest importer of rice in the world. The current government policy initiatives aim at prioritizing the rice sector and decreasing dependence on import thereby fostering production and supplying agricultural inputs. Nigeria is faced with mounting food import bills for the staple crop that has been consuming huge chunks of foreign exchange, particularly in times of low crude oil revenues, the government, in 2015, created the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP), a micro-credit scheme for farmers of identified crops, including rice. Jigawa State is mainly an agrarian area, and is one of the major rice producing zones in the country. Three specific objectives guided the study. One null hypothesis was formulated and tested as 0.05 level of significance. Data for the study was collected through a researcher designed questionnaire. Result was analyzed using descriptive statistics of frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation. Inferential statistic of binary logic regression was used to test the null hypothesis formulated. Result of the findings shows that there is high level of ABP awareness among smallholder rice farmers in the study area as well as high accessibility of farmers to the facilities provided. Government should give larger financial support to the programme and should be made available in all rice growing states of the federation was among recommendations made.
Keywords: Anchor Borrowers Programme, Smallholder farmers, accessibility
Introduction
Agricultural development is an integral part of national development. It is that aspect of development that is related to agrarian reforms. Considering the contribution of agriculture to the socio-economic development of many countries, several scholars have postulated theories linking agriculture with national development. Within the context of development paradigms postulated in the field of agriculture, communication, sociology and economics there are evidences to show that changes are taking place in the agricultural sector across the globe. Therefore, such changes can be viewed from contributions of agriculture to the nation through policies, projects and programmes.
Agricultural policies and programmes in Nigeria have under gone changes especially in the postcolonial era. These changes have been a mere reflection of changes in government or administration. This is because these policies and programmes vary only in nomenclature and organizational network. They emphasize almost same objectives like: to provide food for the inhabitants of the nation (food security and sufficiency) and export excess to other countries and to provide rural dwellers and farmers with extension services, agricultural support and rural development services. Notwithstanding all the policies and laudable programmes with challenging themes, Nigeria is yet to achieve food security.
Some policies and programmes were positively impactful while some made no difference. All the same, the plethora of agricultural policies continues to suffer from inertia associated with these policies and programme reformation that pervade Nigeria. The persisted failures of most agricultural programmes in Nigeria have revealed the basic weakness of agricultural policies in the country and the inability of the several administrations to solve the basic and fundamental problems of agricultural development. Agricultural development may be achieved through the adoption of new farm input, technological know-how, access to soft loan and rural roads facilities.
Food shortages in Nigeria are often blamed on ineffective agricultural research, lack of continuity in agricultural policies and programmes, the poor implementation by administrators, low quality of extension and weak linkage system between research, extension and farmers (Harrison & Oguntunde, (2021). According to Kassem, (2014) the criticism on government programmes is due to the top-down approach, which has been supply-driven, weak, catering only for large farmers and providing insufficient coverage of the smallholder farmers, who are the producers of the bulk of food crops in Nigeria. It implied that proven agricultural technologies which are needed to ensure higher productivity and food security, do not reach millions of smallholder farmers scattered in the rural areas. Agriculture remains a key economic activity in Nigeria employing about 75% of the population, only approximately 1% of bank lending goes to the agricultural sector. Most of Nigeria’s poor depend largely on agriculture for their livelihoods, improving the productivity, profitability, and sustainability of the agricultural sector is argued to be the main pathway out of poverty in the country (Ahmed & Mesfin, 2017). In spite of this fact, agricultural sector growth in Nigeria remains stagnant.
