Capacity Building Needs of Farmers for Sustainable Poverty Alleviation In Niger Sate, Nigeria

Abstract

The study examined the capacity building needs of farmers for sustainable poverty alleviation in Niger State, Nigeria. To achieve the study objectives 375 respondents were randomly and proportionately selected from three Local Government Areas in the State. Validated interview schedule with reliability coefficient of 0.82 was used to collect data. Data collected were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Result of the study revealed that (56.00%) of the respondents had no formal education, while crop (96.00%) livestock farming (67.45%) were the predominant livelihood activities of the respondents for poverty alleviation. The mean annual income of the respondents was N 152,436. Major areas of capacity building needs of the respondents for poverty alleviation includes crop and livestock farming as well as sustainable fishing strategies. Socio-economic characteristics such as age (r=0.392), family size (r=0.312) and cooperative membership (r=0.307) had significant correlation with involvement of respondents in livelihood activities. Therefore, sensitization of farmers on diverse agricultural livelihoods was suggested to enable them obtain more opportunity for sustainable development and poverty alleviation. Also, the paper drew attention to the need to consider age, family size and cooperative membership of the farmers when planning and implementing agricultural poverty alleviation programmes in the State