| dc.description.abstract | Nigeria has over 100 million people living below the US$1.90 poverty line. Most of these poor
people are rural smallholder farmers. Agricultural interventions are ongoing to alleviate poverty
and food insecurity amongst smallholder farmers in Nigeria, but these interventions have been less
successful when compared to similar interventions implemented by developed countries. One such
intervention in Nigeria is the Fadama III project. It is against this background that this study
evaluated the development impact of the Fadama III project on the agricultural yield, food security,
and income of smallholder farmers. The aim was to draw lessons from the evaluated project that
would guide the design of future agricultural projects that are more effective.
Using primary data from 300 farmers, descriptive statistics, inferential statistics, probit regression,
propensity score matching, and a quasi-experimental research design, this study found that the
Fadama III project increases agricultural yield (rice yield), three dimensions of food security (food
availability, food access, food utility), and some type of income (income from cassava production)
of smallholder farmers in Ebonyi State. However, Fadama III does not significantly cause an
increase in the food stability dimension of food security and other types of income like income
from rice production. It also found that youth and female farmers are under-represented in Fadama
III project. Also | en_US |
