Abstract
Most g overnment agricultural programmes in developing countries are designed following the political ideology of the ruling class and farmers have mixed responses regarding participation . The top – bottom approach adopted in designing these programmes further created dissatisfaction among farmers. Achieving the objectives of these programmes will depend on the level of farmers’ participation . Premised on this, the study determined factors that influence farmers’ participation in government agricultural programme s in the Southern region of Nigeria. Data were collected from 3 9 0 farmers in the study area. Combinations of sampling methods were used to collect data . The Logit model estimates revealed that , household size, dependent ratio, farming experience, years in social organization, land ownership, awareness index, membership in political party, non - farm income, visit by extension agent, male composition in farming population and level of formal education were positive determin ants of farmers’ participation in government agricultural programmes in the study area. On the contrary, farm income and bureaucracy bottleneck involved in these p rogrammes were negative determinants. Perceived constraints to farmers’ participation w ere; b ureaucracy involve; insufficient land for implementation, high transport cost and low awareness . In order to increase farmers’ participation in agricultural based programme in the region, it is recommended that, g overnment should reclaim marginal land and create a policy that will increase land ownership by resource poor farmers in the region. Farmers should be encouraged to form social groups. Massive awareness campaign should be mounted to sensitize farmers on government agricultural programmes in the region . Also, such programmes should be p olitical ly neutral and design following bottom - up approach.
Highlights
Most government agricultural programmes in developing countries are designed following the political ideology of the ruling class and farmers have mixed responses regarding participation
An average period of formal education stood at 12.30 years among respondents
Social capital formation among farmers was low in the study area, as shown by an average of 2 years in social organizations
Summary
Most government agricultural programmes in developing countries are designed following the political ideology of the ruling class and farmers have mixed responses regarding participation. In Nigeria, governments in all tiers have recognized this significant task and have responded appropriately by enunciating several agricultural based programmes to help boost domestic agricultural production (Iwuchukwu and Igbokwe, 2012, Akinbamowo 2013) Such interventions programmes have assumed several forms such as subsidies, credit disbursement to farmers, social capital formation and guaranteeing minimum price for agricultural commodities. From 1988 till 2016, the state has implemented the following agricultural based programmes to boost food production; Rice Development Scheme, Fadamas, Akwa Ibom State Integrated Farmer Scheme, National Programme for Food Security, Women Agro-Entrepreneurship Development Programme, Commercial Agricultural Programme, Agricultural Loan Scheme, Small holder Oil Palm Development Project, Bio-fortified Cassava Stem Programme among others (Akwa Ibom State Agricultural Programme document and Akpan et al, 2015) These programmes have various objectives geared towards achieving self-food sufficiency and poverty alleviation. The physiology of each of this programme and how it is designed, political environment as well as the mandate of such programme determine the extent of farmers’ participation
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