ISSN: 2222-6990
Open access
This study examines the impact of National Fadama Development Project II on the provision of advisory
services to the farmers (beneficiaries). It assesses the extent to which participation in the program has
enhanced the level of adoption and demand for advisory services. The study relied on primary data
collected using structured questionnaire and personal interviews. The study uses Propensity score
matching (PSM) and double difference (DD) estimator to really net out the impact on the beneficiaries.
Statistical test for difference (t-Test) was used to compare the outcomes of the beneficiaries and non
beneficiaries. Fadama II has increased demand for postharvest handling, agricultural marketing,
livestock management practices, crop management practices, and financial management advisory
services and have made significantly greater impact compared with nonbeneficiaries at 5% level of
significance but did not have a significant impact on the demand for improved crop varieties and soil
fertility management technologies, perhaps because of its emphasis on providing postproduction
advisory services. The Fadama II project has had limited impact on provision of production advisory
services probably because the public extension service provider (the ADP) has focused on providing
production advisory services using mainly a supply-driven approach The project needs to consider
supporting soil fertility management to enhance the effectiveness of productive assets and other
interventions and to address the potential land degradation that could result from higher agricultural
productivity. It is also important for Fadama II to invest in providing advisory services on production
technologies, because the ADP has limited funding to effectively provide such services. As it strives to
reform its extension systems toward more pluralistic systems, the government needs to harmonize
existing approaches and seek to use those that are complementary rather than conflicting.
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