CAPACITY BUILDING NEEDS OF SMALL-SCALE RICE FARMING FAMILIES IN AGRICULTURAL ZONE 1 OF NIGER STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study accessed the capacity building needs of small-scale rice farming families in Agricultural Zone 1 of Niger State, Nigeria. The specific objectives described the socio-economic characteristics of rice farming families; their capacity building needs and the factors influencing it. Multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select 120 respondents on which structured questionnaire was administered. Data collected were analyzed with descriptive and inferential statistics. The result obtained revealed that 69.2% of the respondents were males, 70% were married, 80% had formal education and 84.2% had a moderate household size of about 1 – 10 persons. The respondents were still in their active age with mean age of 42 years. The major capacity building needs identified by the respondents were rice pest control management (79.2%), rice post-harvest management (78.3%), rice processing technology (75.8%) and rice planting technologies (68.3%) ranked 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th respectively among others. In terms of factors influencing the capacity building needs of the respondents, Tobit regression estimates revealed that farm size (8.24, p<0.01), education (4.71, p<0.01), cooperative (1.84, p<0.10) and availability of projects (2.63, p<0.01) positively influences the capacity building needs of the respondents, while age (-1.83, p<0.01) negatively influences the respondents’ capacity building needs. Thus, the respondents were in need of technologies that could enhance their capacity in rice production. It was therefore recommended that relevant stakeholders should partner with Government and Non-Governmental Organizations to establish project(s) that will cater for the capacity building needs of the rice farming families in the study area.