ROLE OF AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT PROJECT (ADP) IN POVERTY ALLEVIATION AMONG YOUTH FARMERS IN KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

 

This research was carried out to determine the role of Agricultural Development Projects (ADP) on poverty alleviation among youth farmers, in Kaduna State. The study had five specific objectives which aimed at determining the extent of youth farmers’ awareness of (KADP) Programme role toward poverty alleviation among youth farmers, the constraints of ADP programmes on poverty alleviation. It aimed at identifying appropriate measures implored and the effective strategies to improve accessibility of the programme to Youth to achieve poverty alleviation. Five research questions were answered and five null hypotheses were also tested. The descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study and a self-designed four-point rating scale questionnaire was used to collect data. The population of the study was 1,811,612 consisting of both male and female youth farmers in Kaduna state. A sample of six hundred (600) respondents was randomly selected for the study. Six hundred copies of questionnaire were distributed but 550 were retrieved. Data collected were analyzed using statistical tools. Percentage scores were used to analyze the demographic variables of the respondents, while research questions were answered using mean scores. Any item with mean score of 2.50 or above was accepted, otherwise rejected. Also the five null hypotheses were tested using t-test and analysis of variance (ANOVA) at alpha, 0.05 level of significance. The result showed that all the five null hypotheses were rejected .The finding of the study revealed that, Agricultural Development Project had not played any significant role in poverty alleviation among youth farmers in Kaduna State. It was concluded that most of the youth farmers were not aware of the existence of the Kaduna State Agricultural Development programme. There were a number of constraints preventing youth farmers’ access to KSADP Programme lack of education among majority of the youth farmers had a negative effect on the awareness of the KSADP Programmes. In order to ensure effective role of KSADP in poverty alleviation among youth farmers in Kaduna State it was recommended that; government should provide adequate funding for the KSADP programme. Extension agents should be employed and deployed to all parts of the state to create awareness.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1        Background of the Study

Occurrence of poverty as a phenomenon is not strange but it is the high incidence that is worrisome. Poverty has been a strong development indicator given attention globally, with intent of reducing it to the barest minimum. In economic terms, poverty is a situation of low income or low consumption. This view is analytically useful for construction of poverty lines. (Chambers, 1995). The value of income or consumption necessary to purchase the minimum standard of nutrition and other necessities, does not tell the complete story. Poverty in real term has both income and non-income dimensions and they are usually interwoven. In this regard, poverty refers to lack of physical necessities, assets and income. It includes more than being income-poor

One of the definitions of poverty drawn from World Bank report (1990) defines poverty as “inability to achieve a minimum standard of living”. The World Bank devoted its world development report to the topic of poverty as early as 1990 (attacking poverty). (www.worldbank.org/poverty/WDRpoverty).

Carvalho and White (1997) established some of the possibilities for classifying poverty as:

1. establishing of the level of income necessary for a minimum standard of living in a given country.
2. observation of income distribution by means of Gini Coefficient in countries where their income is concentrated among the few, it is highly probable that many suffer wants.

• indicator for various social aspects of human life that assist in assessment of standard of living. The United Nation Organization (1999) used Human Development Index (HDI) as a general measure of a country‟s standard of living and thus as an indicator of the poverty situation there. The HDI include in addition to average per capital income, three social indicators as well, average life expectancy; the literacy rate, and the proportion of children attending school. Afonja and Ogwumike (2003) explained the insufficiency of growth rate as a sufficient measure of assessing development.

Social dimension of poverty analysed through qualitative approach is more realistic and recently more in use. The qualitative approach define poverty so as to capture the processes and interactions between social, cultural, political, and economic affairs. It includes a wider range of factors such as vulnerability, isolation, powerlessness, survival, personal dignity, security, self-respect, basic needs and ownership of assets. According to Obaseki and Onwioduakit (1997), the poverty profile in Nigeria indicates that despite Nigeria‟s rich endowment in human, physical and natural resources, land, oil and gas, forest etc, the incidence of poverty is high. Poverty is serious and extensive to differing degrees in all parts of the country. Okebukola (2005) suggests that offering farmers with irrigation machineries and improved seed varieties will help to boost agricultural production and tackle poverty since half of Nigerian poor people work in agriculture. He also suggested that supporting small and medium-size enterprises will help create jobs. It is so clear that this perfectly describes the terrain within which agricultural service delivery may have to function in poverty alleviation. If all the above statements are to be considered then agriculture may playing a key role to the poverty alleviation in Nigeria and Kaduna State in particular.

Many  agricultural  development  interventions  have  been  carried  out  in  Nigeria  targeted towards  increased   agricultural   production.  Government  intervention  in  agricultural production and development started in the  year 1893 with the Department of Botanical Research  near  Olokemeji  in  the  present  Ogun  State.  Since  then  there  has  been  several agricultural programmes such as: Farm Settlement Scheme, which was established in 1965, Integrated Agricultural Development Projects in 1972, Operation Feed the Nation (OFN) in 1976, Green Revolution in 1979 and River Basin Development Authority Scheme in 1983, (Jibowo, 1992).

The researcher observed that among the Agricultural Programmes, Agricultural Development Project has numerous programmes that can be utilized by the youth farmers in order to minimize the level of poverty among the people of the state specially the youth farmers. Nigerian government and the World Bank went into bilateral talk which resulted into the introduction of the Agricultural Development Projects (ADPs) in Nigeria in 1975. The first generation of ADPs started as enclave projects which covered few local government areas in three states in 1975. These were Funtua in then Kaduna State, Gusau in then Sokoto State and Gombe in then Bauchi State. Ayingba in old Benue State was added in 1978, Lafia in old Plateau State in 1979. Bida in Niger State in 1980 and Ilorin in Kwara State in 1980, The Oyo – North ADP was established in 1981 while the Ekiti-Akoko ADP was established in 1982.

It would be noticed that out of the nine enclave ADPs which were first established seven were located in the north, while the last two were established in the western part of the country. Perhaps, the reason was that these ADPs were located where food production could be easier because of their open vegetations. The initial Projects were to last for five years before being evaluated and if found successful, it would planned to be extended to other states in Nigeria (Omokore, 1983). In Kaduna state the Kaduna State Agricultural Development Project is the implementation organ of the State Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources, It is semi-autonomous, focuses on the small-scale farmers and it adopted the integrated rural development strategy in its operations.

The  policy-making  body  is  the  Agricultural  Development  Project  Executive  Committee

(ADPEC) headed by the State Governor or the Commissioner for Agriculture. Its executionsbody is the Project Management Unit (PMU) headed by the Project Manager, who is assisted by heads of various divisions. Its programmes consist of Adaptive Research, Extension or Technology transfer, Input supply and rural infrastructure, (Jibowo, 1992).

Kaduna State Agricultural Development Project (KADP) is an offshoot of the Funtua Enclave Agricultural Development Project (FADP) later transformed into Integrated Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (IRDA) and finally to KADP in 1985, (KADP Annual Report, 1985).

It has the following mandate in the state agricultural sector. These are to:

1. generate modem farming technologies in conjunction with relevant agricultural research institutes,
2. Disseminate improved agricultural technologies to farmers through effective extension delivery.

• Linking farmers to sources of fund (soft-loan grants) and to educate farmers on how to get better market for their produce.

The organization has five departments (2 technical and 3 supports). The technical departments includes:- Agricultural Services and Fadama Development while the Support Services Department include Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, Finance and Supply, Administration, Personnel and Training. The two technical department cover the following areas; Crops. Livestock. Fisheries, Bee-Keeping. Crop Protection, Soil and Water Conservation, Agro-Forestry and Seed Development under the following programmes:

1. Fadama Projects
2. National Programme on Food Security

• Community Based Agriculture and Rural Development Programmes (CBRADP)

1. Root and Tuber Expansion Programme (RTGP)
2. Multi-Nerica Rice Reduction Programme
3. Commercial Agriculture Development Programme (CADP)

• Irrigation Development Programme
• Agriculture Enhancement Programme.

The other three departments facilitated the performance of the listed activities by the Technical Departments in terms of planning, monitoring, evaluation administration, financial management, training, etc. KADP has the following Zonal arrangement across the state:

1. Maigana Zone:- with Headquarters at Tudun Saibu, Maigana zone covers the following Local Government Area; Giwa, Zaria, Sabon Gari, Kudan, Makarfi, Soba-Ikara and Kubau.
2. Samaru Zone:- with Headquarters at Samaru – Kataf covers the following Local Government Areas- Kachia, Zangon Kataf, Kagarko, Jaba, Kaura, Jema’a and Sanga.

• Birnin Gwari Zone:- with Headquarters at Birnin Gwari covers the following Local Government Areas; Birni Gwari, Chikun, Kaduna North, Kaduna South, Kajuru.

1. Lere Zone with Headquarters at Sabon Birni Saminaka covers the following Local Government Areas: Igabi. Kauru. Lere.

Okebukola (2005) observes that an affective poverty reduction strategy must attack poverty on all fronts at the same time. The many strands of poverty intertwine and can pull people into downward spiral. The researcher observes that one of the key ways in which ADPs are different from previous agricultural development programmes is that they rely on a holistic view of the social and economic challenges facing farmers and offer a multi-pronged approach to attacking poverty. Perhaps the greatest hindrance to this achievement can be the farmers level of awareness or literacy especially with regard to the KADP programmes.

1.2        Statement of the Problem

It is common now to find Youths in our various communities ganging up drinking beer and smoking Indian hemp and no amount of security employed can stop them. Fafunwa (2000) observed that “Nigeria has so many works to be done, but yet there is no employment”. As a result of unemployment, majority of youths in Kaduna state are in absolute poverty. They form gangs and influence their peers to commit social vices in society. The extent and depth of poverty in the developing world at close of the 20^th Century was astonishing. About 1.3 billion people of the population are in absolute poverty (Anderson P. and Pandyan-Lorch R., 1999). This confirms the observation of the researcher in Kaduna State. Many youths who are supposed to contribute to community development are left idle. The popular saying of “an idle mind is a devil‟s work shop” has come to reality in society.

Owuna (1984) asserts “that (planners) recognize the fact that Agriculture has been expected to provide employment opportunities and self reliance in basic food production, and high per capita income. It is thus, better to concentrate efforts on raising food production per man per unit area of cultivation by subsistent farmers, who account for seventy to ninety percent of total agricultural output. It is on this note that researcher; investigate the role of KADP in poverty alleviation among the youth farmers in Kaduna State. According to Independent Evaluation Group (I.E.G. 2009) Report “the government adoption of the ADPs concept puts small holder sector in the centre of agricultural development strategy.

1.3        Objective of the Study

The general objective is to determined role of ADP in poverty alleviation among youth farmers in Kaduna state. The specific objectives are however to:

1. Identify the role of youth farmers‟ awareness of ADP programme in poverty alleviation in Kaduna State.
2. Identify the role of ADP effort in poverty alleviation among youth farmers in Kaduna State.

• Identify the constraints of ADP role in poverty alleviation among youth farmers in Kaduna State,

1. Identify the role of ADP strategies in poverty alleviation among youth farmers in Kaduna State.
2. Identify the role of ADP measures of improvement in poverty alleviation among youth farmers in Kaduna State.

1.4        Research Questions

For the purpose of this research work the following research questions were raised.

1. What is the extent of youth farmers‟ awareness of ADP programme?
2. What are the practical efforts of ADP programme in poverty alleviation among youth farmers in Kaduna state?

• What are the constraints of ADP in poverty alleviation among youth farmers in Kaduna State?

1. What are the strategies of ADP programme in poverty alleviation among youth farmers in Kaduna state?
2. What are ADP measures of improvement in youth farmers‟ poverty alleviation in Kaduna State?

1.5        Research Hypotheses

In line with the specific objectives and the research questions the following null hypotheses were tested.

1. ADP programme awareness has no significant role on youth farmers‟ poverty alleviation in Kaduna State
2. ADP programme effort has no significant role on to youth farmer‟s poverty alleviation in Kaduna State.

• ADP programme constraints have no significant role on youth farmers‟ poverty alleviation in Kaduna State.

1. ADP programme strategies have no significant role on youth farmers poverty alleviation in Kaduna State.
2. ADP programme measure of improvement has no significant role on youth farmers‟ poverty alleviation in Kaduna State.

1.6        Significance of the Study

The study will be significant in many ways:

Youths will become aware that if they embrace ADP programme it will provide them with self employment. The study will sensitize all the three (3) tiers of Governments on the alarming rate of among the Youths poverty and the need to promote Vocational Agricultural Training that would assist in massive production to reduce the youths‟ unemployment. Through this study Government would be able to keep properly the record of Youths unemployment in Kaduna State and this can help in planning of poverty alleviation programme. The finding will enable the educators, researchers, and general public to consider ADP programme as a means of poverty alleviation. In addition, the study will bridge the gap between the previous studies on ADP and poverty alleviation and also serve as reference for further research studies.

1.7        Basic Assumptions for the Study

For the purpose of this study, it was assumed that:

1. ADPs programme can be means of solving the problem of poverty among the youths in Kaduna State.
2. poverty is a threat that can hinder National Development.

• Youths do not understand that ADP programmes can be a help to alleviate poverty among the Youths.

1. ADP programme has some constraints which if eliminated can be a better means of alleviating poverty.

1.8        Delimitation of the Study

The study was delimited to:

1. All the youths between 15-34 yrs of age in Kaduna state.
2. The following programmes of ADP. Namely: Fadama Projects, National Programme on   Food   Security.    Community   Based,   Agricultural    and   Rural     Development Programmes (CBRADP). Commercial Agricultural Development Programme (CADP). Irrigation Development Programme, Agricultural Enhancement Programme and Root and Tubers Expansion Programme (RTEP). In  addition,  the  study was  delimited  to  four  (4)  ADPs  zones  in  Kaduna  State  namely: Maigana. Samaru, Birnin Gwari and Lere Zones

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