Impact of Community-Based Agriculture and Rural Development Project on Income of Farmers in Kwara State, Nigeria

Abstract

Community-based agriculture and rural development (CBARD) projects have made huge efforts to achieve their objectives to improve the livelihoods and living conditions of the rural poor by supporting sustainable social, agricultural and economic development interventions. The study investigated the impact of CBARD project on the income of goat farmers in Kwara State, Nigeria. A multistage sampling procedure was employed to select a sample size of 185 respondents. Data was collected from the respondents through a well-structured instrument. Descriptive statistics, Chow test, rank-based quotient, and t-test were employed to analyse the data. The mean age of beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries of the project were 47 and 33 respectively. A significant proportion (70.0%) of the beneficiaries were women whose families had twelve dependents on average. The majority (85.0%) of non-beneficiaries were also women with an average household size of seven members. Education levels varied among the respondents, with higher education positively influencing technology adoption. Most of the beneficiaries received information about the project through extension agents. The result of the Chow test showed that the community-based agriculture and rural development project had a greater impact on the income of beneficiaries than that of non-beneficiaries. In terms of asset ownership, beneficiaries owned home appliances, communication devices, and vehicles several years after the end of the project. The results of the housing types revealed that among the beneficiaries, 40.4% lived in terracotta houses with zinc roofs, while 33.2% resided in concrete block houses with zinc roofs. In contrast, 34.9% of non-beneficiaries lived in terracotta houses with zinc roofs, and 17.4% in concrete block houses with zinc roofs. In terms of benefits, farmers reported improvements in capacity building (3.10) and small ruminant productivity (3.10). The key challenges included disease outbreaks (93.3%), high veterinary costs (69.1%), lack of subsidies (90.8%), inadequate doorstep technical support (75.8%), and exploitation by intermediaries (96.0%). Beneficiaries of the community project had significantly higher incomes compared to non-beneficiaries (p < 0.05). The study concludes that the CBARD project had a significant impact on the income of beneficiaries compared to non-beneficiaries.