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Assessment of food crop farmers’ participation and performance in West African Agricultural Productivity Programme (WAAPP) in Abia, nigeria
Abstract
This study was carried out in 2016 to assess food crop farmers‘ performance on farmers‘ participating in West African Agricultural Productivity Programme (WAAPP) in Abia State, Nigeria. Multi-stage random sampling technique was used in the study. The three Agricultural zones in the state were involved. Two blocks which have WAAPP sponsored projects in their locations were purposively selected from each zone. Based on same reason, two circles were purposively selected from the blocks making them twelve circles. Finally, ten farmers who participated in WAAPP activities on yam and cassava farming were randomly selected, in all 120 respondents made up the sample size. List of farmers who participated in WAAPP collected from N.R.C.R.I WAAPP Coordinating office, Umudike and Agricultural Innovation Platform (AIP), Umudike served as the study population. A structured questionnaire was used to elicit information from the farmers. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The result revealed that 65.83% of the respondents were male while 34.17% were female. It showed that the mean age of the respondents was 50.4 years. This result revealed that majority of the respondents are adults and in their active age. The result also showed that 47.50% of the respondents had farm sizes of less than 1 hectare and the mean of farm size was 0.9ha. The result showed high adoption level with grand mean score of 2.42. The major constraint to food crop farmers‘ participation in WAAPP farming activities was paucity of funds (65%), Untimely supplies of input (60.00%), ineffective mobilization of farmers (53.33%), Lack of farm land (20.0%), Poor leadership or contact farmer (13.3%), Poor/inadequate enlightenment (12.01%). The result of multiple regression analysis showed -2.157, -3.432, 12.096, 10.389, 2.109, 3.266 and 2.785, indicating significant relationship between adoption and socioeconomics characteristics of the farmers. The study therefore concluded that food crop farmers‘ in the study area participated actively in activities of WAAPP on food crop farming and the programme achieved her set objective. Therefore, it was recommended that more efforts should be made by WAAPP coordinating offices toward supplies of inputs on time, because high and timely supply of inputs will encourage cassava and yam farming.
Key words: Farmers, Participation, Adoption and WAAPP
