Impact Assessment of the Root and Tuber Expansion Programme (RTEP) in Benue State, Nigeria

The study assessed changes in root and tuber crops, quality of life of respondents due to intervention of Root and Tuber Expansion (RTEP) in Benue State. Based on proportion to size of root and tuber crops farming population per Zone, 70 respondents each from Zones A and B, and 64 from Zone C were purposively sampled, giving a total of 234 respondents. Data were collected using well-structured questionnaire. Simple descriptive statistics and regression analysis were used to analyse the data that was collected. Results showed that most respondents (40.9%) belonged to the age group of 41-60 years, majority (53.6%) were males, majority (81.4%) were educated at various levels, mean household size was 11 members, and majority (92%) were married with 93.14 per cent farming as their major occupation. The mean farm size was found to be 5 hectares with a mean size of 2 hectares cropped with roots and tubers. Most respondents were in the income bracket of N50,000- N75,000, higher than earlier income bracket (N31,000-N40,000) established in the baseline survey conducted in 2001.Findings also showed that RTEP intervention resulted in increased per hectare yield of 2.48MT/ha, 1.4MT/ha and 2.19MT/ha for cassava in Zones A, B and C, respectively. The quality of life of root and tuber producers also improved with majority (83%) eating three meals daily compared to 48 per cent at the baseline survey. The lean food period for most respondents also decreased from 4 - 2 months, meat intake frequency per week for majority (59%) also increased from once a week to 5 times weekly. Results of regression analysis gave an R2 value of 0.876 indicating positive impact on income and hence quality of life of RTEP beneficiaries. It was recommended that youths be encouraged into root and tuber industry in the State to avoid obvious devastation associated with declining productivity and diminishing managerial competence associated with old age.