EFFECTIVENESS OF ANCHOR BORROWERS PROGRAMME ON THEINCOME AND ASSET OF RICE (Oryza Sativa) FARMERS IN YAURI LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF KEBBI STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The research was conducted to analyze the effectiveness of anchor borrower’s programme on the income and asset of rice farmers in Yauri local government area of Kebbi State, Nigeria.The broad objective of the study is to analyze the effectiveness of Anchor Borrowers Programme on the income and assets of rice farmers in Yauri local Government area. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to arrive at a sample size of 180 beneficiaries (respondents). Both descriptive and statistical analyses were used to analyze the data collected from the field. The result indicates that majority (97.8%) of the beneficiaries were males, had acquired one form of formal education or the other and virtually all of them are married. The result also revealed that most (61.1%) of the beneficiaries are engaged in rain fed farming. The result reveals that, credit and loan acquisition is the main factor that influenced majority (98.9%) of the beneficiaries to participate in Anchor borrowers programme. The result further revealed that the rice farmers in the study area had an increased yield, livestock and income as a result of participation in anchor borrower’s programme despite the complaint they made regarding inadequate fertilizer, inadequate processing facilities and late disbursement of loan and inputs. The result also revealed that, adequate provision of facilities, loan should be given in full not in installment and the loan should be disbursed early before planting season.The regression analysis shows that there is a significant relationship between effectiveness of anchor borrowers programme and marital status, level of education and farm size, therefore rejecting the null hypothesis, meanwhile, age, sex, family size, farming experience and type of farming have no statistically significant relationship with the effectiveness of Anchor Borrowers Programme. Therefore, the null hypothesis is accepted. The research recommends that, there should be early disbursement of funds and inputs, real farmers should be targeted, the programme should be properly supervised so as to ensure proper disbursement of loans and input as planned, the funds should be given to farmer’s base on the size of the farmland and well trained extension agents should be provided for effective and efficient information dissemination.