Analysis of USAID-Market II Intervention on Rice Farmers’ Profitability in Niger State, Nigeria
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Abstract
The focus of this study was to analyze the USAID-MARKET II intervention on rice farmers’ profitability in Niger state, Nigeria. The specific objectives were to; describe the socioeconomic characteristics of the farmers, determine and compare the costs and returns associated with rice production under the programmeand identify constraints faced by small scale rice farmers participating in the programme.Multi-stage sampling technique was used to select respondents for the study. A total of 247 respondents made up of 130 participants and 117 non-participants were randomly selected from two participating Local Government Areas in Niger State. Data were collected with the aid of structured questionnaire. Analytical tools used were descriptive and Gross margin analysis. The result of the analysis shows that the average age for participant and non-participant farmers were 43 and 41 years respectively. The results also revealed that male (96.9%) were more involved in the programme. Majority of the participant and non-participant rice farmers were married . Theaverage household sizes were 10 and 9 while the average years of experience were 12 and 14 years respectively. Average farm sizes among participant and non-participant farmers, were 4 and 2 hectares respectively. The gross margin were found to be N88,148.00/ha and N30,492.00/ha for both category of farmers while the average rate of return per naira invested were 1.15 and 0.58 for the rice farmers.The study recommends that rice farmers should be encouraged by extension agents to take advantage of intervention and actively participate in programmes that increase their productivity and income on sustainable basis.
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