Income distribution in small scale irrigation project, A case study of Wurno irrigation project Sokoto state, Nigeria

Abstract

Abstract Farm income distribution among farmers at the Wurno irrigation project Sokoto state was studied, respondents were drawn from six villages that were selected randomly, from each of the six villages 20 respondent were selected randomly to arrive at a sample size of 120 respondents structured questionnaires was used to collect data on both rain fed and irrigated crops for the 2006 rainy season and 2006/2007 irrigation season. However, 116 questionnaire were used for the analysis. Descriptive statistics decile ratio test, the Lorenz curve and Gini concentration ratio were for data analysis result of the study revealed that majority (98.28%) of the respondent were male, the age distribution shows that 32.76% were aged 31 – 40 years rice was mainly cultivated in the rainy season while onion and garlic were cultivated during the dry season. For the dry season crops, and average farm income of N62,523,78 was received by 35.24% of the respondent representing 31.08% of the aggregate income from dry season crops. The computed Gini coefficient of 0.5895 and 0.6212 implied highly unequally distributed income for irrigated and rain fed crops respectively. It was recommended that road network within the project area should be maintained regular to improved transportation network, minimize post harvest losses and improve returns.