Effects of ARMTI Village Alive Development Initiative on the beneficiaries in Kwara State

Abstract

Increasing poverty in the rural areas has been identified as a bane to rural development in Nigeria. Bearing this in mind, the Agricultural and Rural Management Training Institute, (ARMTI) developed an action-oriented research laboratory called Village Alive Development Initiative (VADI). The general objective of this study (conducted in 2019) was to assess the activities of VADI towards poverty alleviation. Both primary and secondary sources of data were used. Descriptive statistics (frequency counts, mean scores and percentages) and Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) were used to analyze data collected. The result revealed that the average age of the beneficiaries was 51.8 years, 55.8% male and 48.2% female, majority were married (74.6%) with primary education (37.6%) as the highest level of education. All the beneficiaries agreed that VADI has contributed (100%) positively to the growth of their enterprise. The relationship between the socio-economic characteristics of the beneficiaries and their saving culture showed that age (0.000), educational status (0.000), source of income (0.018), agricultural activities (0.011), farm size (0.003) and herd size (0.042) have significant relationship on the saving culture of the beneficiaries. Village Alive Development Initiative scheme was very effective and has helped the beneficiaries in their saving culture and growth of their agricultural enterprise. The study recommended that interest rate should be reduced to a considerable amount for the VADI beneficiaries and, that loan should be processed within the shortest possible time.