CHALLENGES FACED BY USAID MARKETS II RICE FARMERS IN NIGER STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study analyzed the challenges faced by USAID market II rice farmers in Niger State, Nigeria. Multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select respondents for the study. A total of 247 respondents made up of 130 participants and 117 non-participants were randomly selected from two participating Local Government Area of Niger State, Katcha and Lapai. The respondents were interviewed with the aid of structured questionnaire. Analytical tools used were descriptive. The result shows that the average age for participant and non-participant farmers were 43 and 41 years, respectively, which indicate that, respondents were in their most productive ages. The results also revealed that male farmers are more involved in the agricultural programme especially in the study area than females. Majority (96.90%) of participant farmers and 92.31% of non-participant farmers  were married while few of them were single. The study further revealed that 55.38% of the participant farmers and 61.54% of the non-participant farmers had household size within the range of 1 – 10 person. The participant farmers were more educated with over 55% of respondent’s being literate, while about 42% of non-participant farmers had acquired one form of education or the other; 68% participant farmers had farming experience of between 1-10 years with average contact with extension workers of three times for the farmers that participated in the USAID/MARKETS II programme and once for non-participant farmers, all participating farmers in the intervention were members of a cooperative association with few non-participant farmers in the cooperatives. The maximum farm size observed was found to be 4 hectares for both categories of rice farmers. The major constraints identified were high cost of inputs, inadequate capital, access to market and pest and diseases. It was concluded that participating in USAID/MARKETS intervention had broadened the knowledge base of the participants through advisory services of the programme, its enhanced the output, increased the income and living conditions of the participants more than that of the non-participants in the study area. The study recommends that intervening agencies on agriculture should ensure that strong institutional linkages and facilitation created among farmers, input suppliers, credit institutions and market for effective service delivery.