Raising the income of smallholder farmers in Kwara State, Nigeria: A case study of cassava-based crop farmers

Abstract

Smallholder farmers suffer from a dearth of valuable information to guide them in taking farm decisions that would raise their income and improve their standard of living. This study derived optimum farm plans that would raise the income of smallholder cassava-based crop farmers in Kwara State, Nigeria. Data were elicited from 164 farmers in the state through structured questionnaire and interview schedule. Data analysis was done using descriptive statistics and linear programming model. The study identified 15 crop production activities with 34.15% and 65.85% of the farmers practising sole and mixed cropping enterprises respectively. The linear programming solution prescribed cassava/maize, cassava/soybean and cassava/sorghum/groundnut on 0.4379ha, 1.0886ha and 0.6435ha respectively in the optimum farm plans to raise their income by 69.82% from $635.02/ha in the existing plan to $1,078.39/ha in the optimum plan. Cassava/melon and cassava/groundnut had the least tendency to depress farmers’ income if forced into the plan. Land, hired labour, capital and agrochemical were the production factors limiting the profit maximization objective among the smallholder cassava based-crop farmers in Kwara State. Optimum farm plans should be incorporated into the extension teaching contents designed for the farmers to enhance increased food production and income generation among the famers.