నైరూప్య

Impact of Agricultural Development Programme (ADP) on Rural Women Contact Farmers' Poverty Levels in Aguata Agricultural Zone of Anambra State, Nigeria

CI Ezeh, CO Anyiro, LK Ogbonnaya, CK Osondu and NQ Obioma

This study determined the impact of agricultural development programmes (ADP) on rural women contact farmers” poverty levels in Aguata, agricultural zone of Abia State, Nigeria. A-multi-stage random sampling technique was used to select 180 rural women farmers (90 a piece for rural women contact and non contact farmers). Instrument for data collection was two sets of pre-tested and structured questionnaires. The poverty line was N5037.79 and N5027.91 per month for rural women contact and non contact farmers respectively. Poverty incidence was 0.444 and 0.5222 for rural women contact and non contact farmers respectively. The result of the paired t-test showed that the ADP impacted positively and significantly on rural women contact farmers” farm income, farm size and fertilizer use levels at 5.0% risk level. The multiple regression analysis with double log as the lead equation showed that the critical determinants of gross expenditure of the rural women contact farmers include household size, farm size, labour use levels and farm incomes at given levels of significance. It was recommended the women farmers should be given increased access to agricultural lands to help boost agricultural output and reduce endemic poverty.