ASSESSMENT OF ANCHOR BORROWERS PROGRAMME PRODUCTIVITY AMONG SMALL-SCALE RICE FARMERS IN KANO STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

This study was conducted to assess the anchor borrowers’ programme productivity among small-scale rice farmers in Kano State, Nigeria. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 160 respondents from whom data were collected using questionnaires. Data were analyses using frequency, percentage, mean, Ordinary Least Square (OLS) multiple regression and Gross margin analysis. The majority of the respondents were between the ages of 32 and 52 years and the mean average of 46 years. Majority were male (94%) and married (86.9%). About 63.8% of rice farmers had formal education while 36.2% of the rice farmers had Quranic education. The mean household size, farming experience were 8 members and 16 years respectively. About 61.5% had farm size between 0.40-1.02 hectares and average farm size was estimated to be 1.14 hectares. The study further show that the total variable costs of the production was N326,520 and total revenue realized from the farm is ₦560,000.00 with a gross margin of ₦233,480.00. The The profit for every naira invested was ₦1.72K. The coefficient of rice seed (0.31), fertilizer (0.12), farm size (0.41) were positive and significant at 1% level of probability which implies that an increase in the quantity of seeds, fertilizer and land size would lead to 31%, 12% and 41% increase in the yield respectively. A positive gross margin with increase in return per naira invested showed that small scale rice farming under ABP is profitable. The study recommends that there is need for ABP Project Management Team (PMT) to digitize the ABP enrollment process and provide adequate training to farmers on banking policies as well as procedures to prevent untimely disbursement of input and fund