Assessment of World Bank Assisted Fadama Agricultural Development Programme on Smallholder Rural Farmers in Edo State, Nigeria

Since 1975, the World Bank has committed well over USD 1.2billion for Agricultural Development Projects (ADPs) to increase farm production and welfare among smallholder farmers in Nigeria. Evidence of evaluation of these ADPs and recently FADAMA in Nigeria is limited. Thus, this study aimed at assessing the impact of World Bank assisted Fadamaprogramme among smallholder rural farmers in Edo State, Nigeria. To achieve this objective, data were collected from 248 farmers who participated in the World Bank assisted Fadama programme randomly sampled from 52 Fadama User Groups (FUGs) in 18 communities, covering 6 LGAs from two senatorial districts. Primary data were obtained from the respondents by means of questionnaire and interview schedule, which were analysed using frequency distribution, mean, t-test and chi-square. An assessment of the poverty profile of the farmers revealed that the World Bank project was effective in enhancing farmers’ livelihood. Regarding the effectiveness of the programme in poverty reduction among smallholder farmers, the study found that the proportion of farmers/respondents who were very poor reduced from 59.3% to 17.3% after participating in the programme, while the non-poor increased from 32.3% to 59.3% after joining in the programme. Based on some limitations identified in the study it was recommended among others that the government should increase its counterpart support to agriculture development projects and link farmers with sources of better agricultural inputs and market.