Farmers' Assessment of the Effects of Duration on Awareness and Participation In Agricultural Projects In Nigeria

Abstract

The study identified the duration of various agricultural projects implemented in Nigeria and investigated the level of awareness of the projects by the farmers, determined the stage attained by the farmers in the adoption curve prior to conclusion of the project and determined the level of participation of farmers.. Through a multistage random sampling technique, two geo political zones (North Central and South West) were studied. This was done by random selection of two states in each geopolitical zone. Kwara and Niger states were selected for North Central while Oyo and Ogun states were selected for South West geo political zone. This was followed by random sampling of 50 farmers from each state, making a total of 200 respondents. Data were collected by means of structured interview schedule and analyzed by frequencies, percentages and Pearson Correlation statistics. Results of the study indicated that the average age of the farmers was 60.4 years. Also 37.5% of the farmers spent over 40 years in farming. The results also indicated that most of the projects were short lived. Consequently a good proportion of the farmers could not participate in the projects on account of short duration. A significant relationship was established between duration of project and awareness (r = 0.75, P = 0.05) as well as between project duration and participation( r = 0.68, p = 0.05 ). Consequently, a good proportion of the farmers could not participate in many of the projects. It was therefore concluded that duration of agricultural project implementation played an important role in creation of awareness and farmers' participation. Therefore, it was recommended that policy makers should take note of these factors in deciding project implementation period in Nigeria.