摘要：This study assessed the potential of the National Fadama (lowland irrigation) facility to enhance smallholder farmers production and income thereby lifting them out of the vicious circle of poverty in South Western Nigeria. About 5% of the participants in Osun State were randomly selected and their performance compared with that of the baseline study conducted before the facility took off. Furthermore, the stochastic frontier production function model was utilized to estimate the technical efficiency level of the participants. Results obtained shows that the farm income obtained from Fadama cultivation increased about three times from #13368.00 at baseline to #38918.00 in the current season. The stochastic production function results obtained shows the coefficients of age of farmer result number of children and farming experience being significant at 1% while the coefficient of cost of seed was significant at 10% level. The range at technical efficiency obtained was 0.9959-0.9964 suggesting a relatively efficient level of production by the participants. The programme thus has a potential to alleviate the participants from poverty.
关键词：Lowland irrigation; rural poverty; agriculture; development
