The Effect of Anchor Borrower Programme on Poverty Reduction of Smallholder Rice farmers in Lagos and Ogun State, Nigeria

Abstract

No doubt, smallholder farmers are the major producer of food and equally among the net buyer of grains in Nigeria. Be as it may, poverty is a key factor contributing to the low level of agricultural productivity of farmers. However, this study analyse the effect of Anchor borrowers’ programme (ABP) on poverty reduction of smallholder rice farmers in Lagos and Ogun State, Nigeria. Three-stage random sampling techniques were used to select two hundred and forty-seven ABP beneficiaries. A welldesigned questionnaire was used to collect necessary information from the respondents and the data were analysed using  descriptive statistics, Foster, Greer and Thorbecke (FGT) poverty index and endogenous selection control function. Result showed that most of the respondents were male and married with average household size of 7.67. This indicated a fairly large farming household. Poverty incidence in the study area stood at 34% with poverty depth and severity of 8% and 2% respectively. The result further revealed that land acquisition which was taken as proxy for productive asset was negative and significant while household size was positively related to poverty status of the respondents. Also, the result showed that the marital status of the respondents, labour utilization, farm size, and amount of fertilizer used had positive relationship with rice output. The study therefore suggests policies that can impel reduction of family size; and spurred access to productive asset for large scale production is implemented.