Effects of Fadama III Project on Dry Season Onion Farmers’ Income in Sokoto State, Nigeria

Abstract

The effect of Fadama III project to the improvement in the income of participating dry season onion farmers inSokoto State was studied. Population of the study comprised of all dry season onion farmers in Sokoto State.Purposive sampling was used to select six Local Government Areas, while random sampling technique was usedto select 15 respondents each from the project participants and non-project participants in each of the six LocalGovernment Areas. Descriptive statistics and gross margin analysis were used for data analyses. Findings of thestudy revealed that Majority (63.53% and 76.40%) of project beneficiaries and non-project beneficiariesrespectively did not attain any form of formal education. Cost of fertilizer dominated the production cost for boththe project beneficiaries (46.61%) and non-project beneficiaries (55.99%) of total cost. Result of the gross marginanalysis shows that the project participants made more profit in dry season onion production (₦241, 854.89)compared to the non-project participants (₦63,328.59). It was recommended that Fadama III project should as muchas possible expand their area of operation so that more farmers can benefit from their services.