SOCIO-ECONOMIC AND CONSTRAINTS ANALYSIS OF FARO-44 RICE FARMERS UNDER FADAMA III ADDITIONAL FINANCE II IN TARABA STATE, NIGERIA

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INTRODUCTION
Agriculture is the major sector of the Nigerian economy that has the potential to make significant impact in poverty reduction efforts since it accounts for 22% of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) and employs 54% of the 54.5 million workforces (National Bureau of Statistics [NBS], 2012). Based on 2021 projection at 3.2% annual employment growth rate, the sector employs 54% of the 123.6 million workforce (NBS, 2021). The NBS (2021) reported that on year-by-year basis, Nigeria's GDP decreased by 6.10% in real terms in the second quarter of 2020, ending the three (3) year trend of low but positive real growth rates recorded since the 2016/2017 recession.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly West African region, rice is an important food commodity for most people in their daily consumption. In Nigeria, rice has assumed a strategic position in the food basket of rural and urban households (Oyinbo et al., 2013). It has changed from being a luxury to a necessity whose consumption will continue to increase with per capita GDP growth implying that its importance in the Nigerians' diet, as a major food item for food security will increase as economic growth continues to increase (Ojogho and Alufohai, 2010) and most of the farmers operated below the production frontier, hence will not be able to maximize their yield per hectare (Sani et al., 2018). Oyinbo et al. (2013) stressed that the status of rice as a necessity in most household's food basket justifies the growing consumer preference for rice in Nigeria. This has therefore, made rice the major staple food in Nigeria where every household, both rich and poor, consumes a greater quantity (Godwin, 2012).
The Additional Financing (AF) is aimed at scaling up the impacts recorded under Fadama III and therefore, to support clusters of farmers in six (6) selected States with comparative advantage and high potential to increase production and productivity of cassava, rice, sorghum and horticulture value chains and link them to organized markets including the State coordinating project zones (SCPZs) when established (National Fadama Coordination Office [NFCO], 2017).
As reported by FAOSTAT (2012), rice plant can grow to 1-1.8 m (3.3-5.9 ft) tall, occasionally more depending on the variety and soil fertility. It has long, slender leaves 50-100 cm (20-39 in) long and 2-2.5 cm (0.79-0.98 in) broad. faro-44 rice has medium maturing of between 100-110 days, has long grain, high yield potential and optimum production under low management (Value Seeds Catalogue, 2021).
Age has a positive relationship to productivity and attainment of technical and economic efficiencies since the older farmers believed to be more responsible and experience in carrying out farm productive decisions than the younger farmers (Ani et al., 2014). As reported by Sani et al. (2014b), majority of fadama III beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries were males signifying that men dominate agricultural production activities while women are more in processing and marketing of farm produce. Fadama III project impact on crop productivity was statistically significant by 43%, increase among male beneficiaries (25%), and female beneficiaries has 157% (Sani et al., 2014b). Osanyinlusi and Adenegan (2016) expressed that age was positively related to productivity. This implies that an increase in age of the respondents would lead to an increase in productivity. The increase in age could make them to have had a mastery of the rice production activity in the aspect of management and resource utilization.
Pest infestations and financial constraints were ranked as the most challenging factors limiting rice production (Osanyinlusi and Adenegan, 2016). Extension services should be intensified in the area to educate the farmers on the appropriate application rate of fertilizer and seed rate per hectare; and in addition, the relevant research institutes should develop a technology for controlling or preventing birds' infestations nd financial constraints were ranked as the most challenging factors limiting rice production (Osanyinlusi and Adenegan, 2016).

MATERIALS AND METHODS The Study Area
Taraba State lies between Latitude 8⁰30" North and 9⁰30" North of the Equator and Longitude 8⁰30" East and 10⁰30" East of the Greenwich meridian. The State covers landmass of 14,099km 2 . The State had 2,300,736 people (National Population Commission [NPC], 2006) and a projected 3,552,344 people as at 2023 based on 3.2% annual population growth of the State. The State has annual rainfall of between 1,000 mm to 1,250 mm and maximum temperature ranges of between 21.1 0 C to 26.7 0 C. The mean annual rainfall ranges from 800mm to over 1800mm in the southern Taraba.
The State shares boundary with Nasarawa and Plateau State to the North-west, Benue State to the South-west and Republic of Cameroun to the Southeast (Taraba Agricultural Development Programme [TADP], 2010;TADP, 2019). The zone has a tropical climate marked by dry and rainy seasons. The rainy season starts in April and ends in October. The wettest months are August and September. The dry season starts in November and ends in April. The mean minimum daily temperature recorded is 14.8⁰C and the mean maximum daily temperature recorded is 34.4⁰C (TADP, 2010). The vegetation of the zone is Guinea savannah type. The study area is predominantly agrarian with about 80% of its inhabitants depending on subsistence agriculture practices mainly in food and cash crops like rice, cassava, yams, benni seed and maize (TADP, 2010;TADP, 2019).
The vegetation of Taraba State is the Guinea Savannah type with the State being predominantly agrarian and some of the major crop produced are cassava, yam, maize, rice, soybeans, oil palm, cocoa, coffee, mangoes, citrus, and banana, dry season production of maize, rice sugarcane and vegetable. Other economic activities include: livestock rearing, fishing, trading and tailoring. Taraba State was predominantly agrarian in nature with about 50% of its inhabitants depending on subsistence agricultural practices mainly in food crops. The soil type in the study area was predominantly alluvial and sandy light loamy soil with occasional laterite out-grouped here and there. There are rugged hills and mountains with fertile plains and valleys intervening within the northern part of the local government area (Taraba State Government

Sampling Procedure and Sample Size
A sample size of 500 faro-44 rice farmers beneficiaries of the fadama III AF II out of 5,000 sample frame was used for this study. Multi-stage random sampling procedure was used in selecting the farmers from fadama Community Associations (FCAs) of farmers who benefitted from the fadama III additional finance II (AF-II) project in selected Local Government Areas (LGAs). Faro-44 rice variety is the most commonly adopted rice varieties among farmers in Taraba State. It yields higher compared to other rice varieties and can be grown in all the agro-ecological regions of Nigeria.
In stage one, three LGAs were randomly selected from each of the three Agricultural zones (Northern Taraba, Central Taraba and Southern Taraba) making a total of nine LGAs that participated in the project. In stage two, 21 FCA districts and 33 FCA wards were randomly selected from the nine selected LGAs. In stage three, purposive sampling technique was used to select the 500 faro-44 rice beneficiaries' farmers of the fadama III AF II project from the study area as presented in Table 1.
In the final stage, from the selected FCAs at the districts and wards level, 10% of 5,000 registered farmers (sample frame) with fadama III AF-II project in each ward were randomly selected making 500 sample size for the study as presented in Table 1. This is in line with Eboh (2009) who proposed 10% for 2,000-5,000 sampling frames in social science research.

Method of Data Collection
Primary data were collected from 500 using structured questionnaire and interview schedule with the aid of properly trained enumerators to generate data for the study in 2021. Information collectedwas on the socio-economic characteristics of the faro-44 rice farmers under fadama III additional finance II project and the constraints faced by the farmers.

Method of Data Analysis
The study used both descriptive (frequency, percentages, mean scores and standard deviation) to achieve objectives of the study. The data on constraints faced by the faro-44 rice farmers in the study area were collected and measured on a 5-point likert rating scale of: strongly agree = 5, agree = 4, undecided = 3, disagree = 2, strongly disagree = 1. The mean scores specified as: where; F1…f4 = total frequency for each category of item. x1…x4 = observed variables.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Respondents Sex, Marital Status, Level of Sducation and source of Land
Sex of the household head which is the biological formation and categorization of the farmers into male or female. The marital status is whether the farmers were married, single, divorced or widowed. Table 2 reveals the results of the socio-economic characteristics of the faro-44 rice farmers. The result shows that 83.80% of the respondents were male while 16.20% were female implying that faro-44 rice farming is male dominated in the study area as a result of the laborious nature of rice production activities. This finding agrees with Audu and Onoja (2012) that in Northern Nigeria, men dominated field crop production and animal rearing while women do the processing and storage because of the pudah system which, confines married women to the family and enclosure in the day time. This finding is also, in consonance with Sani et al. (2014b) who report that majority of fadama III beneficiaries (87.3%) and non-beneficiaries (90.5%) are male signifying that men are more attracted in agricultural production activities than the females who most often like to be more engaged in non-farm activities, e.g., processing (winnowing) and marketing. This is in consonance with Orifah et al. (2021 that majority (98%) of the rice farmers were males. This result is also in consonance with Osanyinlusi and Adenegan (2016) who states that male farmers dominated rice farming probably due to its nature of intense and time-consuming. By implications, this finding warrants the need for introduction of modern rice harvesting and processing technologies in order to minimize the huge and laborious nature of rice production.
In terms of marital status of the respondents, majority (78.80%) were married and this agrees with Orifah et al. (2021) that 90% of rice farmers were and few were single. This alludes to the facts that married farmers could be more productive and engaging in farming activities in order to provide food security for their households. This also implies from the theory of labour opportunities in farm production that been married arising from family members could provide cheap sources of labour sources for across the farm production chains. Table 2 shows that more than half (58.20%) of the respondents had informal education that can guide the mental attitude of the farmers for the awareness and acceptance of new rice value chain practices. This result is contrary to Orifah et al. (2021) that 66.1% of the rice farmers had formal education. Also, (18.80%) never attended school, (13.60%) and (6.00) attained primary and secondary education, respectively. By implications, literate farmers will be more productive on farm production and enhancement skills and would be technically, allocatively and economically efficient than illiterate farmers. It is glaring from the results that the respondents had minimal level of education that could enable them acquire skills and technologies adaptation to enhance farm efficiency. This finding is in line with Boniphace et al. (2014) and Oparinde and Daramola (2014) cited in Ndanitsa et al. (2020) that education enhances farmer's access to information and proper use of inputs, leading to higher marketable surplus.
Based on the results on farmers educational level, Mustapha et al. (2012) a n d Olumba (2014) also supported these finding as, respectively, reported in their work in Pategi, Kwara State that 39% of the rice farmers had only adult education with very low formal education and in Anambra State that majority of the farmers had primary level of education and as such, land sources is very key to rice and any form of farm production.
As revealed in Table 2, many (33.80%) of the faro-44 rice farmers acquired land through inheritance, 19.80% by renting and few (12.00%) by lease; purchase (16.00%) and government allocation 49(9.80). These results signify that land by inheritance dominate sources of land for rice cultivation in the study area meaning that customs and traditions plays significant roles in land acquisition by the respondents and those who can afford also renting, and at times by leasing for share cropping as alternative or numerous sources of land acquisition for rice farmers in the study area.

Farmers' Access to Extension Agent, Frequency of Visits and Source of Farm Credit
Farmers' access to extension agents refers to the status of extension personnel visits to farmers. Table 3 results further disclosed that half (52.20%) of the respondents had access to extension agents and a few (47.80%) had no access. The results means that faro-44 rice farmers had reasonable access to extension visits or contacts as it could enhance more farmers awareness and adoption of faro-44 rice farm technologies to enhance farm efficiencies. This implies extension agents visited more on fortnightly basis to the rice farmers as an indication that knowledge sharing and dissemination would improve the farmers' production efficiency. This result is contrary to Madu and Aniobi (2018) in their study that majority (52.4%) of farmers had no contact with extension agents throughout the year. The respondents' frequency of extension agent visits as presented in Table 3 shows that few (28.60%) had fortnightly visits, weekly (18.60%), monthly (20.00%), quarterly (18.00%) and none (14.80%). This finding is consistent with the findings of Abu (2015) and Agwu et al. (2013)  extension services is needed to facilitate technical advice on farming issues, such as what to produce and when to produce to facilitating access to input supplies, the provision of market information and capacity building training to farmers. On sources of farm credit (Table 3), some (28.60%) of the respondents stated that own sources were the main credit sources followed by friends/relatives (26.40). This signifies that informal type credit dominates the sources of farm credit in the study area and by implications, farmer would enhance farmers capital formation and credit capacity confidence of the faro-44 rice farmers in Taraba State. Apata et al. (2010) findings support these results as access to farm credits plays significant role in the entire farm production cycle and farmers' welfare.  Table 4 show a mean age of about 43 years, minimum and maximum age of 18 and 67 years, respectively, for the faro-4 rice farmers in the study area meaning that majority of the total farming population in the study area are still within the productive age and can adequately manage and carry out production activities efficiently. The implication of this results is that faro-4 rice farm households in Taraba State are in their economically active age group and this may lead to a high tendency of adopting modern technologies for technical progression. The result is in consonance with Orifah et al. (2021) who report mean age of 41 years and Ben Chendo -et al. (2017) who reports mean age of 49 years. The respondents had mean household size of 9 persons implying availability of family labour in the study area. Also, this result is in agreement with Ndanitsa et al. (2020) findings with mean household persons of 9 and 11 for rice investment consortium project participants and non-participants, respectively, in Niger State, Nigeria.

ISSN (Print): 2651-6144; ISSN (Online): 2651-6365
The faro-44 rice farmers' mean farm size (ha) as presented in Table 4 was 2.66 ha. The implication of this finding is that the respondents have the tendency of operating a medium size farm which could lead to commercialization and generating incentives for marketable surplus for the farmers. This finding corroborates with Ndanitsa et al. (2020) reporting a mean farm size of 2.0 ha and 1.85 ha for the rice investment consortium project participants and nonparticipants, respectively. This means that the respondents were typical smallholders which could negatively affect mechanization and commercialization. However, Abdulrahman et al. (2018) and Onyeneke (2017) also differ with this result saying rice farmers operated average farm size of 4 ha and 1.8 ha in Kano and Imo States of Nigeria, respectively. Table 4 also reveal that, faro-44 rice farmers have minimum and maximum of 1 year and 25 years experiences, respectively, with an average of 14.02 years farming experience implying that the farmers had sufficient years of experience to enable them cope and manage rice farm production activities to attain farm efficiency. The faro-44 rice farmers in the study area earns minimum annual income of N28,722.00 and maximum income of N189,101.00 with a mean income of N108,194.64 annually. This implication of these results is that the farmers annual realizable incomes can sustain the farmers' family welfare, production expenses and could still have income savings.

Constraints faced by Fadama III AF-II Faro-44 Rice Farmers in Taraba State
The results (Table 5) of major constraints faced by fadama III AF-II faro-44 rice farmers in Taraba State, Nigeria were identified and discussed in this section. Pests and diseases were the major (93.80%) constraints faced by fadama AF-II faro-44 rice farmers in Taraba State, Nigeria. This finding is in consonance with Osanyinlusi and Adenegan (2016) that pest and diseases infestations as major factors limiting rice production. Majority (89.20%) of the respondent reveals inadequate information on improved rice production technologies as constraint hindering Fadama AF-II Faro-44 rice farmers in Taraba State, Nigeria. Information flows on improved rice production technologies such as varieties, processing technologies and marketing technologies could contribute greatly to sustainability of faro-44 rice yield increase in Taraba State, Nigeria.
Farmer-herder conflicts led to households' livelihoods devastated due to farmer-herder conflicts in the study area. The results show that majority (78.60%) of the respondents attested that farmer-herder conflicts had affected their rice production greatly. This finding is in agreement with Oguntolu and Sani (2021) where it was established that crops and properties, destruction of livestock and disruption of peace were the major effects of crop farmerspastoralists conflicts in Benue State, Nigeria.
The 4th constraints were inadequate capital with 76.40% of the respondents saying it affected their faro-44 rice farming in Taraba State, Nigeria. Ogundele and Okoruwa (2006) cited in Osanyinlusi and Adenegan (2016); Fakayode (2009);Apata (2007) reported inadequate funds or capital a s the greatest challenge in rice production. High cost of farm inputs (70.20%) was another constraint in faro-44 rice production in Taraba State, Nigeria. There has been high cost of farm inputs such as fertilizers, land, labour, herbicides and insecticides in the study area. This may be due to high competition for farm inputs against low supplies of the inputs. Banseka (2015) reported that most farmers are in daring need of farm inputs, but, very often, the inputs are not available.
Poor road network/transportation problem as said by the respondents constitute 66.20% and ranked as 6th constraint to faro-44 rice farming in Taraba State, Nigeria. The aim of fadama III Additional finance II is to support farmers with rural network of roads and rehabilitations (NFCO, 2018). This will go a long way in easing transportation of farm produce at reduced cost all things being equal (ceteris paribus).
In Taraba State, Nigeria 66% of faro-44 respondents reveals that climatic factors, e.g., flood, ground water depletion, drought ranked 7th affected their production. Ayinde et al. (2013) supported this result saying a 1% rise in humidity may bring about 17% decrease in rice production. Environmental factors, like rainfall irregular and temperature correlate with crop production and yield of rice production in Nigeria (Bersir and Ceylan, 2013;Sawa and Adebayo, 2011).
With regards to high cost of labour, many (64.60%) of faro-44 rice farmers said it affected their production and is ranked as 8th constraints. As we all know, labour (family and hired) is critical in rice farming as revealed by Madu and Aniobi (2018) cost of labour accounted for the largest proportion (54.0%) of the total variable costs in rice production.
Poor market outlet was ranked 9th with many (44.20%) of the faro-44 rice farmers saying poor market outlets was a constraint faced in their production. Ogundele and Okoruwa (2006) cited in Osanyinlusi and Adenegan (2016) reported that market failures contribute to decrease in rice production margins; and Suwanmaneepong et al. (2020) reported that price differences across market segments within the rice distribution channel and profitability may be due to poor market information and outlet.
Scarcity of improved seeds as a constraint was ranked 10th with 39.60% of the faro-44 rice farmers who reveals that scarcity of improved rice seeds affected their output yield. Consequently, the farmers were able to source additional improved seed varieties from open markets at high cost. As reported by Ayedun and Adeniyi (2019), improved seeds (43%) were a constraint in reducing gross margin of rice production and that 68% of the sourced their seeds from self and in most cases recycled over time. Similarly, 26.80% of faro-44 rice farmers in Taraba State, Nigeria reported high cost of seeds ranked 11th as additional constraints faced in their production. Table 5 shows that land fragmentation as a constraint was ranked 12th with few (21.00%) b the respondents. Land fragmentation has implications on farm resource planning as this result is in agreement with Ohen and Ajah (2015) who stated that poor storage facilities constraint rice production. Furthermore, poor storage facilities as ranked 13th with few (20.20%) stating it as a constraint.
Inadequate extension services or contact was a constraint ranked 14th with only (19.20%) of the respondents saying so. Extension services is key in farm and off-farm production. Price fluctuation as ranked as 15th constraint (6.20%) in faro-44 rice farming in Taraba State, Nigeria. Lastly, only 5.60% of the faro-44 rice farmers in Taraba State, Nigeria reported fear of kidnapping/banditry as a constraint and ranked as the16th constraint.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The study concuded that the faro-44 rice farmers under fadama III additional finance II in Taraba State, Nigeria is dominated by males and the major constraints faced by the farmers were pests and diseases, inadequate information on improved rice production technologies, farmer-herder conflicts, inadequate capital and high cost of farm inputs. It was recommended as follows: 1. Women farmers in Taraba State, Nigeria should form strong cooperative associations in order to benefit more from such laudable fadama AF-II intervention/supports taking cognizance also of the enormous benefit of the women in agriculture programmes. 2. More of the farmers should be scaled-up to formal educational levels through farmers forming cooperative societies for scholarship supports to further boost the farmers capacity in rice production. 3. Finally, there is urgent need for the government and non-governmental organization (NGOs) and farmers to cooperate and tackle farmer-herder conflicts, kidnapping and banditry in order to boost farmers confidence and safety while working on their rice farm.