Impact of Fadama II Project on Rural Livelihoods Well- Being in Niger State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study assessed the impact of Fadama II project on rural livelihoods well-being in Niger state. Three (Local Government Areas) (LGAs) out of 11 LGAs that benefited from Fadama II project and three LGAs that did not benefit in the project were randomly selected for the study. One Fadama Community Association (FCA) and five Fadama Users` groups (FUGs) were randomly selected from each LGA. Five beneficiaries were also randomly sampled from each FUG. Also simple random sampling procedure was applied to select non-beneficiaries. Seventy five beneficiaries and seventy five non- beneficiaries were randomly sampled, making a total of 150 respondents. Descriptive statistics and paired t-test were used to analyze the data. The results revealed that Fadama II project beneficiaries lived in fairly better houses and owned better means of transportation when compared to non- beneficiaries. On the value of selected assets, housing had the highest value for all the respondents. The mean value of beneficiaries was N565, 791, while non- beneficiaries was N 55,760 (P<0.01). The mean annual income of the beneficiaries was N187,726.64 while the non- beneficiaries had N48, 486.67 (P<0.05). The study affirmed that Fadama II project impacted positively on the well being of beneficiaries.

Keywords: Fadama II project, Community-driven development, Beneficiaries, Non- beneficiaries, Well-being.