MICRO LEVEL IMPACT OF NATIONAL FADAMA 11 PROJECT ON RURAL POVERTY IN IMO STATE, NIGERIA

The issue of poverty in Nigeria has been described as pervasive and palpable on the people especially the rural dwellers. This is in spite of the country’s vast natural and human resources. Poverty is not only a state of existence but also a process with many dimensions and complexities. It has been estimated that poverty in Nigeria will increase by two-thirds with the possibility of 60% of the population living below poverty line in ten years. Consequent upon the foregoing, this study determined the micro level impact of national Fadama II project on rural poverty in Imo State, Nigeria. Specifically, it sought to describe the socio-economic characteristics of the beneficiary and non beneficiary farmers in Imo state; determine the poverty line, poverty incidence and poverty gap between the Fadama II and non Fadama II farmers; determine the effect of the programme on participants’ farm income, output and farm size A multi-stage random sampling technique was used to select 240 (120 apiece for Fadama II and non Fadama II farmers) respondents from which input-output data were collected. Instrument of data collection was through a set of structured and pretested questionnaire. The study employed mean and frequency counts, poverty parameters and paired t-test statistic as analytical tools. The results of the analyses showed that poverty incidence was 0.5367 and 0.3215 for Fadama II and non Fadama II farmers respectively while the poverty gap was 0.0337 and 0.1113 for Fadama II and non Fadama II farmers respectively. The result of the Paired t-test showed that the national Fadama II Facility impacted positively and significantly on the beneficiaries’ output level, income level and labour use level at given levels of significance. It was however recommended that Farmers should be given increased access to Fadama lands to help boost agricultural output and reduce endemic poverty.