Effect of Participation in Community-based Agriculture and Rural Development Project on Socio-economic Status of Rural Dwellers in Northern Nigeria

Community-Based Agriculture and Rural Development Project (CBARDP) is expected to enhance Socio-Economic Status (SES) of rural dwellers; consequently impact positively on general welfare of the rural dwellers. However, impact of the project on SES of rural dwellers is yet to be ascertained. Thus, the effect of participation in CBARDP on SES of rural dwellers in northern Nigeria was investigated. Three of the five participating states were randomly selected. Three participating and non-participating Local Government Areas (LGAs) were chosen from selected states using stratified random sampling. One Rural Village Area (RVA) from each of the participating and one ward from non-participating LGAs were randomly selected. Five percent of registered participants in each RVA and equal proportion of non-participants were selected to obtain 410 respondents. Interview schedule was used to collect data. Participants had high SES (113.9±20.1) than non-participants (106.6±14.7) as 5.9% and 0.7% of participants and non-participants attained better-off SES. Respondents’ SES was significantly related to age (r = 0.246) and monthly income (r = 0.438) and significantly related to marital status (χ2 = 926.644) and education (χ2 = 66.176). Similarly, SES was significantly influenced by knowledge (r = 0.220), attitude (r = 0.187) and benefit derived (r = 0.142) from the project. Significant difference existed between SES of participants and non participants (t = 4.612). The project impacted positively on participants’ socio-economic status but delayed implementation constituted major challenge to project participants.