Browsing by Author "Amadi, Mark Umunna"

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    Welfare impact of IFAD value chain development programme on rice farmers in Ebonyi State: An endogenous treatment
    (Federal University of Technology, Owerri, 2025-12) Amadi, Mark Umunna
    The study analyzed the welfare impact of the IFAD value chain development programme (VCDP) on rice farmers in Ebonyi State. Its specific objectives were to evaluate; the impact of the VCDP on the income of rice farmers, the impact of the VCDP on the productivity of rice farmers, the impact of the VCDP on the food and nutrition security of rice farmers, the impact of the VCDP on access to education of the rice farmers and the impact of the VCDP on access to healthcare of the rice farmers, in Ebonyi State. A multi-stage sampling procedure was employed, using a combination of simple and stratified random sampling techniques to select the rice VCDP farmer beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries from the local government areas, then primary data were collected using a well-structured questionnaire. The data were analyzed using a double robust treatment model – inverse probability weighted regression adjustment (IPWRA) – for the impact of participation in the rice VCDP on the welfare outcomes of the farmers. Results of the analyses showed that rice VCDP had positive and significant impacts on the net farm income (1.79% points increase), on the total factor productivity (1.014 increase), on the food & nutrition security (8.69 score increase), and on the children’s average years of schooling (0.54 years increase), for the rice farmer participants. Also, the rice VCDP intervention had a negative and significant impact on the healthcare expenditure (66.7% decrease) of the rice farmer participants. The key determinants of farmer participation in the rice VCDP were membership in an agricultural association, participation in agricultural training, access to extension and access to inputs from agricultural associations. In addition, the welfare outcomes of farmers were influenced by farm size, household size, farming experience, and the frequency of extension visits. The study recommends that: the VCDP intervention be scaled up to cover more LGAs; the formation and formalization of agricultural associations/cooperatives be facilitated through a working relationship between Departments of Agriculture and Registrars of Cooperatives to the benefit of farmers; the local authorities assist in domesticating agricultural trainings at the community levels to ease farmer participation; establishment of extension services outpost in all communities be implemented while also mobilizing extension service providers adequately; the local authorities should assist in scaling rice farmer market participation capacity by developing land-banks which will make agricultural land readily available and accessible at low-cost for farming purposes only. The study contributes to impact evaluation literature by utilizing quantitative and qualitative measures to explore plausible relationships between farming decisions and education and health outcomes of households.