Constraints to effective participation of smallholder rice farmers in anchor borrowers’ programme (ABP) in Kaduna State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study examined the constraints to effective participation of smallholder rice farmers under Anchor Borrowers’ Programme in  Kaduna State, Nigeria. The specific objectives of the study were to describe the socio-economic characteristics of the rice farmers and to identify the constraints faced by the smallholder rice farmers in the study area. Data were collected from 810 participants using  structured questionnaire and check-list for Focus Group Discussion (FGD). Descriptive statistics was used to analyze the data. The results showed that majority (95.31%) of the participants were married, while male respondents were 88.59% with a mean age of 43 years and  the farmers had one form of education or the other. Majority of the farmers had a fairly large household size with an average of 6 years farming experience. The result further revealed that the major constraints to participation of smallholder rice farmers in ABP were  diversion of subsidized inputs, inadequate cash for farm operation, delay in distribution of farm inputs and high cost of farm inputs which  were ranked 1st, 2nd, 2nd and 4th respectively. Therefore, it was recommended that the Government should constitutes  monitoring and evaluation committee that will oversee the implementation of programmes according to blue print in order to reduce  corruption tendencies and ABP facilitators should ensure timely disbursement of fund and planting material s before planting season.