Differences in peri-urban and rural farm production decisions amid policy change in Nigeria

Abstract

Enhancing productivity and profitability of farm households were key focuses among Nigerian agricultural policymakers in their design of the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) of 2011–2015. There were several prominent policy initiatives and market development activities included in the ATA. The main direct effects of implementing them were increased public expenditures on subsidized fertilizer and seeds and increased average productivity among subsidy recipients. There were also indirect effects pertaining to greater awareness of agricultural development initiatives among the public and increased farm input availability. However, due to relatively greater physical and transportation infrastructure in urban relative to rural areas, we hypothesized that farm households in peri-urban regions nearest to markets were better positioned to benefit from such initiatives as compared to rural farm households. In this context, the empirical analysis in this article estimates differences among peri-urban versus rural farm households regarding their crop produce marketing and farm input purchase decisions during the period of ATA policy implementation. The results support the hypothesis that peri-urban farm households increased purchases of farm inputs to a greater degree than did rural farm households as well as had higher crop sales values. Data limitations do not allow for determining the causal reason for relatively higher crop sales values. Overall, the policy and market development activities appear to have achieved some intended outcomes among farm households in both peri-urban and rural areas, but the impacts were most pronounced among households nearest to markets.