Impact of Survival Farming Intervention Programme on Cassava Production
Chapter One
Objectives of the Study
The broad objective of this study was to assess the Impact of Kogi Agricultural Development Project Survival Farming Intervention Programme on Cassava Production in Adavi, Okehi and Okene Local Government Areas of Kogi State. The specific objectives are to;
- describe the socio-economic characteristics of the programme participants and non- participants in the study area;
- assess the level of awareness of the survival farming intervention programme components by the respondents in the study area;
- determine the factors influencing participation of respondents in survival farming intervention programme on cassava production in the study area;
- assess the impact of the survival farming intervention programme on cassava production of the participants and non-participants in the study area;
- assess the impact of the survival farming intervention programme on income and level of living of the participants and non-participants in the study area, and vi. identify the constraints associated with effective implementation of survival farming intervention programme in the study area.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Socio-Economic Characteristics of Farmers
Socio-economic characteristics play significant role in the farmers‟ lives in the sense that they influence willingness to accept changes which contributed significantly in raising farm productivity and ultimately their standard of living. Some of the most commonly used socio-economic variables includes age, sex, marital status, level of education, household size, farm size, farming experience, land acquisition, labour, access to credit, member of cooperative, extension contact and other estimated economic variables like income, output and standard of living. In a study of Indian farm households, Sharma et al. (2003) reported that all male-headed with an average family size did not vary significantly across the regions where the study was conducted. Likewise, average age of household heads was above 40 years old. However, average age of commercial farmers was lower compared to other farm size categories which indicated that younger farmers have strong preference for production activity.
According to Emmanuel et al. (2006) farmers participating in irrigation project had some type of formal education and not all of them are illiterate. In survey of pigeon pea production systems utilization and marketing in semi-arid lands of Kenya, the average age of farmers in both locations was 46.5 years with over 40.0% having attended at least 4 years school and average family size was 8.6 people (Mergeai et al., 2001). Muhammed-Lawal et al. (2009) also reported that 82.7% of the youth in agriculture are male. Chikezie et al. (2012) revealed in his findings of factors constraining rural youth involvement in cassava production that majority of the youths in Onu-Imo local government area of Imo State were at the productive age where their energies could be harnessed and utilized for productive venture in agriculture especially cassava production. More so, 9.2% of the respondents were less than 20 years, 43.3% and 33.3% were between 21–25 years and 26–30 years, respectively, while only 14.2% of the respondents were more than 30 years of age. He also revealed that 81.7% of the respondents were male, while 18.3% were female. According to Adewale et al. (2005) gender is no barrier to active involvement in cassava production activities.
However, Oladeji et al. (2003) observed that it is generally believed that males are often more energetic and could readily be available for energy demanding jobs like cassava farming. Respondents‟ education revealed that 52.5%, 38.3%and 4.2% had primary, secondary and higher education respectively. While only 5.0% of the respondents had no formal education. In terms of farming experience, his study showed that 66.7% of the respondents had been in cassava farming for less than 10 years, 20.8% and 12.5% had been in cassava farming for between 11 – 25 years and more than 25 years respectively. The farming experience shows that farmers will be able to make sound decisions as regards resources allocation and management of their cassava farms. Furthermore, the size of the farm cultivated is a function of population pressure, family size and financial background of the farmers.
CHAPTER THREE
METHODOLOGY
Study Area
This study was conducted in Adavi, Okehi and Okene Local Government Areas of Kogi State. The LGAs are located on latitude 70401N, 70 421N and 70331N, and longitude 60271E, 60181E and 60141E of the equator respectively (Kogi ADP, 2003). The estimated land area for the three LGAs is 1707 square kilometers (Km2) and a total population of 202,194 for Adavi LGA, 199,999 for Okehi LGA and 320,260 for Okene
LGA (NPC, 2006). The projected population as at 2013 using 3.2% growth rate was 252,743 for Adavi LGA, 249,999 for Okehi LGA and 400,325 for Okene LGA. The Local Government Areas are characterized by two main seasons which are wet and dry seasons. The rainy season is established around late march to early April and get to the peak in August and September while dry season begin in November up to late February.
Just like in the Northern part of the country, the area also experience cold weather “harmathan” from December to January. Vegetation type is Sudan savannah with notable trees such as locust-beans, baobab, sheer-butter and palm trees. Majority of the people, especially the male are farmers engaging in crop production such as maize, cassava, guinea corn, yams, beni-seed, ground nut and cotton to some extent and livestock rearing (goats, sheep, poultry, etc). The female are responsible for the livestock rearing, but their major occupation is weaving, sales of produce within and outside the Local Government Area. With the advent of modernization, diversification of occupation exist with some people working as civil servants and others engage in trading, furniture making, photography, printing, small scale processing and other economic activities.
CHAPTER FOUR
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
This chapter discusses the result of the data analysis comprising of the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents, factors influencing participation of respondents in Survival Farming Intervention Programme (SFIP) and impact of SFIP on cassava production, income and livelihoods of participants and non-participants in the study area.
4.1 Socio-Economic Characteristics of the Respondents
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Summary
This study was on Impact of Kogi Agricultural Development Project Survival Farming
Intervention Programme on Cassava Production in Adavi, Okehi and Okene Local Government Areas of Kogi State and it also determine the factors that influence respondents‟ participation in SFIP in the study area. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select respondents for this study. The first step involved the purposive sampling of the two districts from each of the Local Government Area giving a total of six districts comprising of participant groups (Adavi-West, Ihima and Okene districts) and non-participant groups (Adavi-East, Eika and Okengwe districts). The second step involved simple random sampling of two wards from each district giving a total of twelve (12) wards. The third step involved simple random sampling of fifteen (15) respondents from each of the ward to get a total of one hundred and eighty (180) respondents comprising of ninety (90) participants and ninety (90) non-participants that was interview with the aid of structured questionnaire. Questionnaire was also administered on ten (10) officials of SFIP to obtained vital information. Data was obtained purely from primary source.
Analytical tools used were both descriptive and inferential statistics. The descriptive statistics involved frequency distribution tables, percentages and mean where necessary while the inferential statistics involved the use of logit regression and chow-test statistical tool. Attitudinal measuring scale such as likert-scale was also employed in this study. The results of the analysis obtained shows that majority of the respondents, 66% of the participants, 65% of the non-participants and 70% of the officials are within the age range of 36 – 55 years in the study area. Almost all the respondents are married with just few divorced and widowed. More also, 12.2% of the participants and 47.8% of non-participants did not attend school at all. But, 76.6%, 52.2% and 60% of the participants, non-participants and the officials respectively attended primary and secondary schools. However, 7.8% of the participants and 40% of the officials attended tertiary institutions. Majority of the respondent 84.5%, 75.5 and 100% of the participants, non-participants and the officials respectively have experience in farming activities within the range of 1 – 20 years. In terms of awareness of SFIP, 82.2% of the participants were aware of SFIP while 81.1% of the non-participants were not aware of SFIP. In the same vein, planting material, access to credit, extension contact and training components of SFIP have high awareness and ranked 1st, 2nd and 3rd respectively among the participants.
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