ABSTRACT

This study assessed the impact of Fadama II Project on Farmer's Asset Acquisition, Income Generation and Sustainable Land management in South-EastNigeria. The multi-stage sampling technique was adopted for the purpose of sample selection. The three agricultural zones of the state were sampled namely; Owerri, Orlu and Okigwe. The study made use of primary data collected with well-structured questionnaire administered to one hundred and forty respondents comprising of seventyFadama II project beneficiaries and seventy non-beneficiaries. Data were analyzed with the use of Descriptive statistics, Regression model and Propensity Score Marching Method with Double Difference estimator. The result of the levels of households' participation in Fadama II project reveals that participation by the beneficiaries was remarkable at problem identification (3.81), project implementation (3.61) and capacity building (3.31) because their mean scores were greater than 3.0 which was the critical decision point. Meanwhile, the beneficiaries did not participate in project evaluation (2.94) and decision making (2.74) because the critical mean point score (3.0) is greater than the calculated mean score whilethe result of probit regression analysis showed that the participation of respondents in Fadama II project was positively influenced by education, household size, income and negatively influenced by age and membership status in cooperative. The result of Propensity Score Matching (PSM) shows that the intervention of Fadama II project impacted positively on the value of productive assets of beneficiaries in the study area. The study shows that the income of non-beneficiaries improved substantially more than project beneficiaries at 10% significant level. The project had significant impact on adoption of sustainable land management practices of Fadama II beneficiaries.The result of OLS multiple regression estimates of factors that influenced Asset acquisition revealed that Asset acquisition among Fadama II project beneficiaries were positively influenced by age, educational level, household size, income and access to credit. The multiple regression analysis result of factors that influenced income generation among Fadama II Project beneficiaries showed that the coefficient of farm size, age, educational level, access to credit were positive and significant while distance to nearest market was negative and significant.Multinomial Logit (MNL) regression shows that gender negatively influenced the choice of adoption of inorganic fertilizer, mulching and continuous cropping.Age negatively influenced the use of mulching while the coefficient of farm size was positive for the use of mulching at 10% significant level. Household size was positively related to adoption of organic fertilizer, inorganic fertilizer, mulching and negatively related to continuous cropping. Access to extension services positively influenced the choice of use of inorganic fertilizer and negatively influenced adoption of bush fallowing. Distance from farm to farmer's homestead negatively influenced the choice of adoption of organic fertilizer. Level of education negatively influenced the choice of using organic fertilizer, inorganic fertilizer, mulching and continuous cropping.The years of farming experience negatively influenced the choice of using inorganic fertilizer, organic fertilizer and mulching, while it positively influenced the choice of using bush fallowing. The amount of non-farm income negatively influenced the choice of not using sustainable land management practices. Land ownership negatively influenced the choice of using organic fertilizer, inorganic fertilizer and continuous cropping at various levels of significance. The major constraints faced by beneficiaries (78.57%) in Fadama II project was the mandatory counterpart contribution (10% for rural infrastructure and 30% for pilot assets) the project demanded from them. This study recommends that governments at all levels pay their counterpart funds on time while considering a reduction in the percentage of counterpart contribution by beneficiaries of the project.