ABSTRACT

This study was conducted to assess the impact of the Community Based Agriculture and Rural Development Project on crop production and other forms of rural livelihoods in Kaduna and Bauchi States, Nigeria. Primary data for the study were collected using well-structured questionnaire, administered to 746 beneficiaries and 746 non-beneficiaries. Descriptive statistics, logit regression and Chow test - statistic were used to analyze the data. Results showed that the level of adoption of recommended crop varieties was high. About 75.1% of the beneficiaries adopted cowpea variety IT 93K-45 and92.4% adopted Sorghum ICSV 400. All the adoption level impacts were highly significant at 1% level of probability. The results of logit regression estimates also indicated that age, farm size, farming experience, membership of cooperative societies, extension contact and access to input were all significant at 1% level of probability and influenced beneficiaries‟ adoption of recommended crop varieties by 42% in the ADB-CBARD Project Interventions. The results of Chow test - statistic showed that crop output, crop yield, income and level of living were all significant at 1% level of probability. The rural wage earning opportunities created by the project as reported by the respondents in the study area included petty trading, crop processing and milling, commercial transportation, water vending, craftwork, bricklaying, seed multiplication, hired labour and animal traction. Constraints encountered by the beneficiaries as they participated in the project were inadequate capital, inadequate processing and storage facilities, low western literacy level and low prices for farm produce. The following recommendations were made: promotion of savings among farmers and farmer groups should be encouraged as well as encouraging the social organisation to secure loans for their members from agricultural banks. Commodity market/produce user programme and processing industries should be established to handle excess farm produce. Government should create awareness amongst the farmers conceiving the newly established agricultural cargo airports nearest to them. The cost of agro chemicals should be subsidized. Feeder roads should be constructed. Recreation facilities like viewing centres and rural telephony should be encouraged and a functional umbrella organisation for farmers is required to handle issues of capacity building for farmers