Benefits of the West Africa Agricultural Productivity Programme on Fisherfolks in Kainji Lake Basin, Nigeria

Abstract A wide spectrum of programmes had been undertaken so far to improve productivity and ensure improved quality of life for the rural population especially those below the poverty line. While some programmes have been acknowledged to have yielded the expected results, many others were ephemeral. The study assessed the benefits of West Africa Agricultural Productivity Programme (WAAPP) through inputs, training and services received; attitude; satisfaction; and constraints of respondents in WAAPP. Purposive sampling procedure was used for this study. Four NIFFR adopted villages were selected purposively to include: Monai, Mussawa, Tunga Alhaji Dambaba, and Cover Dam out of 8 established villages at 50% as at the time of this study due to large number of WAAPP activities in the area. The total number of respondents sampled in selected adopted villages were 120. Primary data was used for this study and these were collected through the use of semi-structured interview schedule. Data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics, namely, frequency distribution, percentages and mean. Results of the study revealed that majority (88.2%) of the respondents received improved fingerlings and fish feeds from WAAPP and the attitude towards WAAPP was favourable for 67.6% of the respondents. The level of satisfaction with WAAPP was favourable for 58.8% of the respondents while more than half (55.9%) of them derived high level of benefit from the programme. Though the study shows that respondents benefit from the WAAPP programme, yet about half (47.1%) of the fisherfolks are being severely constrained by inadequate capital to sustain the programme projects. Keywords: Poverty; Productivity; Adopted; Village and Programme