Anchor Borrowers’ Scheme Initiative and Rice Production Among Farmers in Northern Agricultural Zone of Cross River State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study was conducted to ascertain the influence of Anchor Borrowers’ Scheme Initiative and Rice Production among Farmers in Northern Agricultural Zone of Cross River State. Ex-post Facto research design was adopted for the study. Two research questions and two null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The population of the study was 3574 registered rice farmers and 30 RIFAN Coordinators in Northern Agricultural Zone of Cross River State. Meyer Model (1940) was used to determine the sample size of 381 respondents who participated in the study. Anchor Borrowers Scheme Initiative and Rice Production Questionnaire (ABSIRPQ) was used for data collection. The instrument was face validated by three experts. To test for the reliability of the instrument, the researcher conducted a trial testing using 30 registered farmers who were not part of the main study but equivalent in all aspects to the registered farmers in the main study. Cronbach Alpha method was used for data analysis and the result yielded .97 co-efficient. This result confirmed that the instrument was reliable for use in obtaining the information for the study. The data were analyzed using Mean and Standard Deviation to answer the research questions while Independent t-test was used in testing all the hypotheses at .05 level of significance. The result of the study revealed that there was a very strong influence of financial inclusion initiative and poverty alleviation initiative of Anchor Borrowers Scheme on rice production among farmers in Northern Agricultural zone of Cross River State. It was concluded that Anchor Borrowers Scheme of the Central bank of Nigeria greatly influences rice production in Northern Agricultural Zone of Cross River State, Nigeria. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that Ministry of Agriculture should organize workshops, seminars and symposium for rice farmers on the importance of keying into the anchor borrowers’ initiative programme to expand their rice production as well as improve on their yearly income.