The IMPACT EVALUATION OF BABBAN GONA FRANCHISE ON PRODUCTIVITY OF SMALLHOLDER MAIZE FARMERS IN KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract This study evaluated the impact of Babban Gona Franchise on the productivity of smallholder maize farmers in Kaduna State, Nigeria. Multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select a total of 754 respondents comprising 377 each for participants and non-participants, respectively for the study. Data were collected by the use of interview schedule. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics, data envelopment analysis (DEA), and propensity score matching (PSM). The results of DEA showed that only 20.9 and 4.9 % of participant and non-participant farms were found operating at optimal scale. Majority of the respondents were found to be technically, allocatively and economically inefficient. Using nearest neighbor matching (NNM), the PSM revealed that participation in Babban Gona Franchise had a positive and significant impact on productivity of the farmers. The result revealed that participant realized 2057.82 kg/ha compared to non-participant with 1747 kg/ha. The difference in yield amount to 309.86 kg/ha which was statistically significant at 1% level of probability level. On the average, the participant obtained a yield of 3.7 tonnes/hectare against non-participant of 1.7 tonnes/hectares of land. This suggest that participant farmers had a positive impact on the productivity of the farmers. The study recommended that capacity development for field agents on knowledge transfer to farmers should be enhanced. Concerted efforts should be made to extend the services of Babban Gona to female folks. The scale of farm production should be increased thereby decreasing cost, given that majority of farms were operating at sub-optimal level. Other forms of contract farming models with potential impact should also be explored.