FADAMA III USER GROUPS; ANALYSIS OF ECONOMIC INTEREST ACTIVITIES IN RIVERS STATE, NIGERIA

Fadama was conceived on the idea of adoption and transfer of technology to achieve self-employment and improve qualitative agricultural productivity. This paper conducted an evaluation of Fadama activities in Rivers State. Information and materials were sourced from the Rivers State Fadama Coordinating Office, State Ministry of Agriculture, published articles and in-depth discussions. Descriptive statistics of frequency, percentages, bar graphs and pie chart were adopted to analyse the data. Findings show that in Rivers South East senatorial zone, thirty-seven aggregated economic interest activities were implemented. In Rivers West, thirty-four sets of fadama user groups’ economic interest activities disaggregated into two-hundred and ninety-eight sub-set projects were found. Rivers East had thirty-seven sets of economic activities disaggregated into four-hundred and seventy sub-set projects. While Overall numbers of one-thousand, one-hundred and thirteen sub-projects were implemented in Rivers State under the Fadama III user groups economic interest activities. In the programme, the highest percentage activities were implemented on Rivers East. The rest percentages were implemented in Rivers South East and Rivers West respectively. The paper recommended that Fadma III programme should be extended to attract more economic interest activities to local governments that could not participate in during the third phase. Veterinary service centers and pet shops should be included in future agricultural programmes to reduce the cost of treating ailing livestock and create jobs for interested participants. Finally, government should expand the scope of rural infrastructure provision to boost participation in agriculture.