Assessment of National Special Programme for Food Security (NSPPS) Project on Productivity and Income of Beneficiary Farmers in Plateau State, Nigeria

Abstract: The study was conducted to assess the impact of National Special Programme for Food Security (NSFS) project on Productivity and income of Beneficiary farmers in Plateau Sate. The specific objectives included: (i) identify, describe and evaluated the socio-economic characteristics of the NSPFS project beneficiary and non beneficiary farmers (ii) determine the factors that influenced farmers participation in NSPFS projects in the study area (iii)determine the net farm income of beneficiary and non non-beneficiary farmers before and after the project intervention; (iv) determine the impact of NSPFS on beneficiary farmers income in the study area (v) determine the impact of NSPFS on beneficiary and non-beneficiary farmers before and after the project intervention (vii) identify the problems faced by the beneficiary farmers in participating in NSPFS project in the study area. Primary and Secondary data were obtained from the respondents of 412 (206 beneficiary and 206 non beneficiary farmers) and NSPFS coordinating offices for baseline survey data. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics; probit model; farm budgeting techniques of net farm income, production function; multiple regression and double difference method. The result showed that the socio-economic characteristics have a lot of influence on income and productivity of the respondents in the study area. Results showed male dominance in both beneficiary and non-beneficiary farmers. Majority of the respondents (beneficiary and non-beneficiary farmers) had farm size of between 0.5 "“ 1.oha before and after NSPFS project respectively. Based on statistical analysis, there was significant difference between the socio-economic characteristics of NSPFS project beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries. Therefore, the null hypothesis that there is no significant difference between socio-economic characteristics of beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries have been rejected and alternatives accepted. On the decision to participate in NSPFS project, 4 factors significantly influenced decision to participate in NSPFS project by the respondents. Participation in other agricultural projects was significant at 1% of t-value = 2.66. The net farm income realized by the responder is indicates an increase in the net farm income of both beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries. On impact of NSPFS on beneficiaries income, a positive mean difference of about N243,299.61 in income was realize and the difference in income was significant at 1% level with t-value = 3.86. This implies that there was an impact of the project on beneficiary's income. The regression result showed that NSPFS project has positive impact on crop productivity of beneficiary farmers in the study area. The f-chow calculated value was 104.45, while that of tabulated f-value was 2.6) at 5% for the three degree of freedom and the population sample N = 412. This implies that NSPFS had impact on crop productivity of beneficiaries. Resource use efficiency indicates that beneficiaries over utilized chemical and underutilized other resources like seed, fertilizer and labour but there was an improvement on the use of productive assets like hoes, cutlass and bicycle. Capital and fertilizer were major problems encountered by beneficiaries in participation in NSPFS project. Findings also revealed that the respondents claimed that their lack of participation in the project was based on their perceived idea that there are no meaningful results from government projects. Other reasons by the non-beneficiaries for not participating include lack of capital, not being a member of any farmer's cooperative society and also bad experience from other agricultural projects. The study recommends among others expansion of the NSPFS project to include at least three quarters of the small "“scale farmers, adequate and timely supply of farm inputs be intensified and there should be a strong reawakening of the farmers' cooperative movement or societies as well as the encouragement of farmers to joint other local groups and association for easy accessibility to inputs, agro services and technological innovations in farm practices.