Increasing Food Production Through Fertilizer Voucher Programme (FVP) By Farmers In Taraba State, Nigeria
Authors:   Department of Agricultural Education, School of Undergraduate Studies, College of Education Zing, Taraba State, Nigeria, Baba Salisu Audu 
Published: September 2022

The study examines increasing food production through fertilizer voucher programme (FVP) by farmers in Taraba State, Nigeria. Specifically, the objectives include: ascertain the farming characteristics of the farmers involved in the Fertilizer Voucher Programme; ascertain farmers’ level of productivity as a result of Fertilizer Voucher Programme and assess the satisfaction of farmers participating in the Fertilizer Voucher Programme. The population for the study comprised all farmers that participated/benefited in FVP in the Taraba State, numbering 51,098 smallholder farmers. Multistage sampling technique was used to draw the sample size. In stage one (1), two senatorial zones (Central & Northern) was purposively selected for their relative peace and security. In stage two, 6 LGAs (Bali, Gashaka, Gassol and Ardo- kola, Jalingo, Zing,) respectively were randomly selected, 3 LGAs in each of the senatorial zones of the selected zones. From each of the selected LGA, 2 percent of the beneficiaries were proportionally selected and used to collect the primary data for the study. The 2 percentage were selected from each participating LGA to get a sample size of 335 respondents for the analysis of data. Majority (62.8%) of the respondents were full-time farmers while 37.2% were part- time farmers. Majority (81.8%) of the respondents were practicing their agricultural activities as a business with some quantities of outputs sold for other livelihood needs. Majority (99.7%) of respondents cultivate crops such as maize, rice, cassava and guinea-corn which are major crops in the FVP. The years of farming experience among the respondents indicate majority (51.2%) of the respondents had between 11-20 years, 23.8% spent a range of 21-30 years and 21.7% engaged in farming for between 1-10 years. The participants in the livestock industry in the FVP constituted 38.7%, while 37.59% were into mixed farming. However, 36% of them were involved in post-harvest handling/agro processing activities. Majority (56.8%) of the respondents had farm sizes of between 1-2 hectares, followed by 39.9% of the respondents of the FVP beneficiaries having a size of between 3-4 hectares of cultivable land. The results show that the respondents were satisfied with the followings: prices of fertilizer (M=3.81, SD=0.43), time of arrival of fertilizer (M=3.29, SD=0.69),quality of fertilizers by the suppliers in FVP (M=3.76,SD=0.48), pattern in fertilizer purchase in FVP (M=3.70,SD=0.47), involvement of private supplier (M=3.59, SD=0.55),access to information in the FVP (M=3.69, SD=0.49), transportation of the fertilizer (M=3.49, SD=0.52), role of cooperative associations (M=3.74, SD=0.48) and leadership development among participants (M=3.68,SD=0.49). The study suggested that the number of bags of fertilizer per participating farmer should be increased to between 5 - 8 bags per season as against the 2-4 bags in the FVP. This would make farmers to increase output and income, by implication improve food security of the Nation. The large scale farmers could be offered between 50 – 100 bags based on categories to meet up their fertilizer needs