Designing agricultural development projects for the small scale farmers: Some lessons from the World Bank Assistance Small holder Oil Palm development scheme in Nigeria

Abstract

The study was carried out to investigate farmers reasons for intercropping their oil palm farms with food and ot cash crops rather than the sole oil palm planting arrangement specified for participation in the World Bank Assistance Smallholder Oil Palm development project financed during the 1975-83 period. The study was conducted at the Ekuku-Agbor Tree Crop Unit Zone (to the East) and Mosogar Tree Crop Unit Zone (to the Southwest) of the old Bendel State of Nigena. A total of 35 oil palm farmers were randomly selected from each zone for the study. The study tried to identify the size of oil palm, cultivated, types of food and cash crops planted and the proportion consumed and sold and the sufficiency of labour for various farm activities. The study showed that the average oil palm farm size at Ekuku-Agbor zone iyas smaller (about 1.57 ha) and more fragmented while for Mosogar zone it was 2.28 ha. However a greater percentage (over 65%) of the farms at both locations were within 0.01-2.00 ha farm size range which could be said to be relatively small. The study revealed that among other factors the farmers desire to ensure adequate family food needs which equates to food security and some cash to meet regular family financial needs necessitated their intercropping of the oil palm farms. Others include the need to maximize the returns from the use of labour which they considered a major limiting factor in farm maintenance and to take advantage of the relative high unit price of cassava and its products that prevailed then by cultivating on any available land space including the palm plantations and thereby increasing their farm income. © 2008 Asian Network for Scientific Information.