Increasing Food Production Through Fertilizer Voucher Programme (FVP) By Farmers In Taraba State, Nigeria

The study examines increasing food production through fertilizer voucher programme (FVP) by farmers in Taraba State, Nigeria. Specifically, the objectives include: ascertain the farming characteristics of the farmers involved in the Fertilizer Voucher Programme; ascertain farmers’ level of productivity as a result of Fertilizer Voucher Programme and assess the satisfaction of farmers participating in the Fertilizer Voucher Programme. The population for the study comprised all farmers that participated/benefited in FVP in the Taraba State, numbering 51,098 smallholder farmers. Multistage sampling technique was used to draw the sample size. In stage one (1), two senatorial zones (Central & Northern) was purposively selected for their relative peace and security. In stage two, 6 LGAs (Bali, Gashaka, Gassol and Ardo- kola, Jalingo, Zing,) respectively were randomly selected, 3 LGAs in each of the senatorial zones of the selected zones. From each of the selected LGA, 2 percent of the beneficiaries were proportionally selected and used to collect the primary data for the study. The 2 percentage were selected from each participating LGA to get a sample size of 335 respondents for the analysis of data. Majority (62.8%) of the respondents were full-time farmers while 37.2% were part- time farmers. Majority (81.8%) of the respondents were practicing their agricultural activities as a business with some quantities of outputs sold for other livelihood needs. Majority (99.7%) of respondents cultivate crops such as maize, rice, cassava and guinea-corn which are major crops in the FVP. The years of farming experience among the respondents indicate majority (51.2%) of the respondents had between 11-20 years, 23.8% spent a range of 21-30 years and 21.7% engaged in farming for between 1-10 years. The participants in the livestock industry in the FVP constituted 38.7%, while 37.59% were into mixed farming. However, 36% of them were involved in post-harvest handling/agro processing activities. Majority (56.8%) of the respondents had farm sizes of between 1-2 hectares, followed by 39.9% of the respondents of the FVP beneficiaries having a size of between 3-4 hectares of cultivable land. The results show that the respondents were satisfied with the followings: prices of fertilizer (M=3.81, SD=0.43), time of arrival of fertilizer (M=3.29, SD=0.69),quality of fertilizers by the suppliers in FVP (M=3.76,SD=0.48), pattern in fertilizer purchase in FVP (M=3.70,SD=0.47), involvement of private supplier (M=3.59, SD=0.55),access to information in the FVP (M=3.69, SD=0.49), transportation of the fertilizer (M=3.49, SD=0.52), role of cooperative associations (M=3.74, SD=0.48) and leadership development among participants (M=3.68,SD=0.49). The study suggested that the number of bags of fertilizer per participating farmer should be increased to between 5 - 8 bags per season as against the 2-4 bags in the FVP. This would make farmers to increase output and income, by implication improve food security of the Nation. The large scale farmers could be offered between 50 – 100 bags based on categories to meet up their fertilizer needs