LIVELIHOOD ANALYSIS OF SMALLHOLDER IRRIGATION FARMERS IN NIGERIA

Abstract

The study assessed the smallholder irrigation farmers«¤?? welfare by examining their irrigation practices
and factor affecting their production outputs in Nigeria. Cross sectional survey was conducted and
primary data were collected from 198 smallholder farmers across selected three major agro-ecological
zones using a multistage sampling technique. The results revealed thatthe highest proportion of
farmers using motor pump with groundwater (71%) and surface water (62%) irrigation system for
farming live in houses made of cement and bricks compared to 59.1% for farmers who practice rainfed
agriculture. About 81.5% of the tube wells are found among the motor pump irrigators, 30%
respondents have hand dug wells. The percentage of farmers with motor pump and associated piping
accessories ranges from 30% among gravity flow irrigators to 70% and 80% among surface and
groundwater irrigators respectively. The analysis of factors affecting farmers productivity suggest that
in order to increase productivity, the manual pump users, should be discouraged from excessiveuse of
fertilizer and large farm size while access to other inputs such as agrochemicals, education,
association with social groups, capital formation should be strengthened. The motor pump users
require large farm size to further increase their output level, while the gravity flow irrigators need to join
farmers association. Furthermore, extension services across the agro-ecological zones should be
resuscitated in order to increase agricultural productivity.