Farmers’ Perception of the Impact of Presidential Fertilizer Initiative Programme (2016-2022) on Crop Production in Wukari, Taraba State, Nigeria
Tikon Fomati Usman*, Chikamso Christian Apeh and Kachebri Yuktar Frank
ABSTRACT
This research investigated farmers’ perception of the impact of Presidential Fertilizer Initiative (PFI) programme (2016 - 2022) on crop production in Wukari, Nigeria. A multi-stage sampling procedure was employed to contact 160 farmers for the study. A well-structured questionnaire was used for data collection and investigated using both descriptive and inferential statistics such as mean score rating and binary logit regression. The result indicates that about (56.9%) of the farmers were males aged between 38 - 47 years (43.1%) with about 0 - 10 years of farming experience (40%). The majority (61.3%) had between 00 - 02 hectares (42.5%) area of farm land. They were aware that PFI provided more than 100,000 direct and indirect jobs throughout the fertilizer value chain (3.14) and was a public-private partnership (3.05). The outcome of the binary logit regression indicated that factors such as age, marital status, farming experience, farm size, quantity of fertilizer distributed, annual income, fertilizer price and fertilizer use rate all had a positive coefficientand significant participation in the PFI programme. The farmers perceived that the PFI programme enhanced crop yield and productivity (3.98). We recommend that the government should sustain this programme to enhance fertilizer supply and improve agricultural production.
