Participation is a direct involvement of groups in development process, which is aimed at building their capacities towards gaining access to productive resources that will enable them attain self-reliance and improve their quality of life. Meanwhile, FADAMA III developmental project is a follow-up to the successful Fadama II project and the development objective is to sustainably increase the income of Fadama users by about 60percent. As such, the study examined the effect of FADAMA III users groups (FUGs) participation on crop farmers income in selected Anambra State. Multistage sampling technique was adopted to select 323 crop farmers. Data obtained were analyzed with both descriptive and inferential statistics with. Evidence from the study revealed that, the majority of the crop farmers participate actively in the Fadama programmes and their participation is being influence by their socioeconomic characteristics. Also, findings showed that there is a positive relationship between farmers level of income and their participation experience (years) in Fadama programmes. Therefore, in order to strengthen the participation of crop farmers in the policies and programmes of the government, the following recommendations are made; farmers should be given compulsory adult education also, encourage them to enroll for any formal education programmes this will enhance their literacy level and build their capacities on how to adopt and manage productive resources; the farmers should be allowed to design and choose project and programmes that are important to them rather than imposing any programme on them, this will facilitate active participation among beneficiaries; finally, the government should adequately fund the developmental programmes and provide quality extension service delivery with competent extension officers.
Keywords: Fadama III Programme, Fadama Users Group, Participation; Crop Farmers Income
