Impact of training the trainers’ programme on rice farmers income and welfare in North Central, Nigeria.

Abstract

The study was conducted in North central, Nigeria. It investigated the impact of training the trainers’ programme on rice farmers. Kwara and Niger states were purposively selected owing to their active participation in the programme. A multi-stage sampling technique was employed for selecting the local governments and for the selection of the respondents. A total of 320 respondents were selected and interviewed using a well structured interview schedule. The respondents were of two categories, the participants and non-participants of the intervention programme. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, such as frequency, percentages, mean, ranking and F-Chow –test. The study revealed that the main reasons for participants participation in the intervention programme was for poverty alleviation, increased in productivity and for economic empowerment which ranked 1st 2nd and 3rd respectively, and their major source of information was USAID MARKERT field officers. The study showed a significant mean difference between the income of the participants (N308,235.63) and non-participants(N152,420.63) implying that participation in the programme has a positive and significant effect on rice farmers’ income. The Chow F-calculated for income (60.97) was greater than the Chow F-tabulated (2.04) which implies that there was a significant impact of the programme on participants’ income. Training the trainers’ programme and adoption of improved rice package has a significant and positive impact on the participants based on the significant paired difference between the mean incomes of participants and Non participants which was significant at 1% level. On the basis of the above, it is recommended that training rice farmers should be given topmost priority to improve their skills on the adoption of improved rice package and that rice farmers should be encouraged and persuaded to take advantage and participate actively in intervention programmes in order to increase their productivity and consequently their income for escaping poverty. Keywords; Impact, Training, Rice, Farmer, income.