Effect of FGN-IFAD Value Chain Development Programme on the Commercialization, Welfare and Performance of Rice Farmers in Anambra State, Nigeria

This study on the effect of the FGN-IFAD Value Chain Development Programme on the commercialization, welfare, and performance of rice farmers in Anambra State, Nigeria, randomly sampled 380 respondents. The study employed budgetary technique, and Heckman Double Hurdle regression. The study revealed that rice production was evenly (50.0%) represented by both male and female; while the enterprise is male-dominated (67.4%) among nonparticipants. The participating farmers are approximately 40 years old, whereas the nonparticipants are 51 years old. The majority (50.5%) of participants sell their produce in an off-taker arrangement, whereas the majority (65.8%) of nonparticipants sell in an open market. We observed that farming experience (3.76)***, and extension contact (4.94)*** among others, positively influenced VCDP farmers’ decision to participate in commercialization, whereas age (2.91)** and farm size (2.24)** influenced nonparticipating farmers’ decision to commercialize. Again, the extent of commercialization was influenced by output/quantity produced (99.81)*** and quantity sold (101.01)*** among others. The same variables (-36.81*** - quantity produced and 40.65*** - quantity sold), along with labour cost (3.37)*** influenced nonparticipants. Equally, VCDP has highly impacted the growth of farm productive assets (0.823), among others, which is moderately (0.572) impacted among the nonparticipants due to the indirect effect of the programme on non-beneficiaries. Furthermore, the study revealed that VCDP farmers recorded a higher return on investment (1.27), compared to the nonparticipants (0.51), which was significantly different at a 60.62*** level of significance. We therefore recommend VCDP programme to be scaled-up to other nonparticipating Southeast states for agricultural sustainability and food security.