CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND
OF THE STUDY
Anambra State was
carved out of the former, larger Anambra State on August 27, 1991. It is
bounded by Delta State to the west, Imo State to the south, Enugu
State to the east and
Kogi State to the north. The people of Anambra State are predominantly Igbos
and are very industrious. Most of the industrial base of
the state is private
sector driven, spanning from agro allied, automobile and manufacturing situated
mostly in the Nnewi industrial belt. Onitsha market is
reputed to be the
biggest in West Africa. The State has a land mass of about 4,416sq km with
4,182,022 population. Several raw materials and agro-products
are produced in
various parts of the State. For example Cassava is widely grown in Orumba South
Local Government, Yam in Anambra West and Rice in
Anambra East. Fishery
products are abundant in Ogbaru. The State has a vision of “becoming the most
livable, economically vibrant state in Sub-Saharan
Africa serving as the
economic hub of the southern part of Anambra state” which is anchored on MDGs,
Vision 20: 2020 and Anambra State Strategic Plan. The
State Agricultural
Investment Plan (SAIP) is aimed at ensuring food security in such a way that
food and agro-products become accessible, available and
aordable
to all Anambrarians
and raw materials to Agro-based industries through a gender balanced,
environmental friendly and private sector driven
development in
Agriculture. The Plan also ensures significant increase in area under
cultivation on arable crops, provision of the basic infrastructure in
fishing communities
and increasing the population of livestock.
The development of
state ministry of agriculture in Anambra state changed in political structure
aer
independence. The
three regions structure in 1960 gave
way to four regions
in1963 and this equally gave way to states creation from 1967 up to 1996
(Ayoola, 2010). The roles of the ministry of agriculture include
the following: –
Organizing of short duration seminars and workshops to farmers. Providing
farmers credit, subsidies and other incentives to boost total
output in the various
special programmes undertaken by the state government, Agricultural Development
Programme (ADP), International Fund for
Agricultural
Development (IFAD), World Bank, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and
other support programmes. Conduct market surveys to
determine current
prices of agricultural inputs and products. Carry out the technical
implementation of all agricultural loan schemes. Pest control services.
Overseeing the
activities of all agriculture related Parastatals and Companies
(www.riverstate.gov.ng (http://www.riverstate.gov.ng)). Agriculture in Anambra
state has witnessed
drastic changes in government programmes ranging from administration, funding,
manpower and learning skills, and infrastructural
facilities to
creation of research institutes (Madukwe, 2008). The first post colonial
development era of 1962-1968 period emphasized the introduction of more
modern agricultural
methods through farm settlements, co-operative plantations, supply of improved
farm implements and a greatly expanded agricultural
extension service.
Some specialized development schemes initiated during this period include: the
National Accelerated Food Production Programme
(NAFPP), 1972; The
World Bank-funded Agricultural Development Projects (ADP) 1975; River Basin and
Rural Development Authorities (RBDA) 1976; Operation
Feed the Nation,
1976; and Green Revolution Programme, 1980; among others (Jibowo & Ajayi,
2011).
Agricultural
Development Programme (ADP) was a bilateral agreement between the World Bank
and the State government of Anambra state in 1975. ADP
idea is an oshoot
of the concept of
integrated agricultural and rural development (Jibowo, 2005). The objective is
to improve the levels of living and welfare
of farmers. It
started as an enclave in some states to a multi-stage ADP. The ADP is the
implementation organ of the state ministries of agriculture and natural
resources (Jibowo and
Ajayi, 2011). ADP programmes consist of adaptive research, extension transfer,
input supply and rural infrastructure. Operation feed
the Nation (OFN)
(1975) was designed to mobilize the general public into participating in
agricultural production using mass and individual extension
methods (Iwuchukwu
and Igbokwe, 2012). Some of these strategies included subsidized production
inputs, increased bank credit to farmers, establishment
of commodity boards
and fixing of attractive prices for agricultural produce (Daneji, 2011). Its
main aim was to greatly reduce the cost of living particularly in
the urban areas with
everybody being able to wholly or partly feed himself (Adebayo and Okuneye,
2011). River Basin and Rural Development Authorities
(RBDA) was launched
in 1976. Primarily, the schemes were to harness the State’s water resources by
providing employment opportunities through intensified
crop, livestock and
fisheries production with the hope of improving the standard of living of the
rural population (Williams, 1981). Their functions were to
facilitate land
development and ensure efficient water resource management. Even though the
project has succeeded several regimes, irrigated land in Anambra state stood at
0.7% (Adebayo and Okuneye, 2011) The Directorate of Foods, Road and Rural
Infrastructure (DFRRI) was established in 1987 with a
mandate to open the
rural areas through the construction of access roads, and provision of basic
amenities of modern living but due to the following reasons,
the programme was not
sustainable: The programme was inevitable because it has long been realized
according to Otubanjo (1992) that the economic future
of Anambra state
depends on the development of rural areas. Therefore, the potentials of rural
areas were seen to be both immediate and long term (Daneji,
2011). The idea of
opening up of rural areas with feeder roads and integrating it with other parts
of the State provided basis for food that could be evacuated
to enhance the
quantity of food and raw materials consumption. During the period of 1980-1988,
30,000km roads were constructed from the targeted
60,000km estimated by
DFFRI. The poor quality of infrastructures provided by the directorate probably
due to mismanagement of fund made the impact of
the programme almost
insignificant. However, the directorate had been criticized in the past for
lack of proper focus and programme accountability
(Idachaba, 1988).
STATEMENT
OF THE GENERAL PROBLEM
Since the creation of
Anambra state in 1991, the State Ministry of Agriculture has gone through
series of changes in the areas of policy initiatives, staing,
manpower training,
funding of programmes (Anambra SEEDS document, n.d). However, some of the
changes did not only come from the State but as a result
of possible
initiatives from interventions/developmental programme introduced by the
Federal Ministry of Agriculture through collaboration with donor
agencies such as
Africa Development Bank (AfDB), Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), International
Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Japanese
International
Co-operation Agency (JICA), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), World
Bank etc. To be eective,
the Ministry of
Agriculture
should be dynamic in
enhancing the capacity for administering the increasing number of programme. To
be dynamic the Ministry must learn 5 from its past
programmes. There
have been changes in the programmes, policy initiatives, and manpower
development of the State Ministry of Agriculture. Chronicling
these changes are
very important in articulating future policies and programmes as they provide
vital information for learning. The question that arose was:
what are the
activities of the ministries over the past 10 years in terms of policies,
programmes, starecruitment, funding, manpower, capacity development
and linkages with
other actors?
AIMS
AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The major aim of the
study is to examine agricultural development and agricultural development
programs in Anambra state. Other specific objectives of the
study include;
1. To examine the
need for eective
agricultural
development in Anambra state.
2. To assess the
level of implementation of agricultural development programs in Anambra state.
3. To examine the
importance of agriculture to the economy of Nigeria.
4. To recommend ways
of improving agricultural development in Anambra state.
RESEARCH
QUESTIONS
1. What is the need
for eective
agricultural
development in Anambra state?
2. What is the level
of implementation of agricultural development programs in Anambra state?
3. What is the
importance of agriculture to the economy of Nigeria?
4. What are the other
ways of improving agricultural development in Anambra?
RESEARCH
HYPOTHESIS
H0: Agricultural
development and agricultural development program in Anambra state is low.
H1: Agricultural
development and agricultural development program in Anambra state is high.
SIGNIFICANCE
OF THE STUDY
The study would be of
immense benefit towards the development of agriculture in Anambra state by
properly assessing the agricultural program
development in the
present administration in Anambra state. The study would also be of immense
benefit to students, researchers and scholars who are
interested in
developing further studies on the subject matter.
SCOPE
AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
The study is
restricted to agricultural development and agricultural development program in
Anambra state in the administration of governo Willie Obiano as
a case study.
LIMITATION
OF THE STUDY
Financial constraint:
Insuicient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing
for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of
data collection (Internet, questionnaire and interview)
Time constraint: The
researcher will simultaneously engage in this study with other academic work.
This consequently will cut down on the time devoted .