Measuring the Effects of Public Policy on Food Production: The Case of Fadama Iii Rice Production Intervention in Anambra State, Nigeria (Published)
This work measured the effects of public policy on food production with evaluating the Fadama III rice production intervention in Anambra State. The inability of communities to come to terms with the operational modules of the project which requires them to contribute cash to the cost of productive resources they will use and governments at all levels’ failure to pay their cash counterpart contribution had deterred effective realization of the project’s objective. The study estimated annual incomes and productive resources used by the farmers before and after joining the project and identified constraints to the realization of project objectives. Descriptive statistics such as frequency counts, means and percentages, were used to analyze data on socio-economic characteristics of the respondents, their incomes and constraints to effective realization of the project objectives while multiple regression model using the ordinary least squares (OLS) approach was used to determine the influence of socio-economic characteristics of the farmers on their income before and after joining the project. Hypotheses were tested using t-statistic in Two-Sample T-test. Chow-statistic was used to test for differences in the coefficients of the regression variables. Findings indicated that the farmers realized incomes of N11,982,200 or 37.98% of total income and N50,164,260 or 48.02% from rice before and after joining the project respectively. Mean incomes and productive resources of N328,619.11 & N58,380.86; and N1,088,278.16 & N249,309.90 were respectively estimated for farmers before and after joining the project. There were significant differences between incomes and productive resources of the farmers before and after joining the project implying goodness of the project. The crop farmers’ annual incomes before and after joining the project were significantly determined by distance to the market, farm size, extension visits and value of productive resources. Irregular fund disbursement topped the list of nine constraints to effective realization of project objectives arranged in descending order of seriousness. Early and prompt release of productive resources and cash counterpart contributions to the farmers, provision of more extension agents, services and logistics for the farmers and reduction of users’ cash contribution will ensure improved productivity, income and project sustainability
Keywords: Fadama III project; Income; Productive resources; Significant; Rice; Anambra State