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Abstract
Rural development efforts in Nigeria during the Fourth Plan period (1981-1985)
are being concentrated on agricultural development projects (ADPs), designed
and implemented with the assistance of the World Bank. These projects began
during the Third Plan period (1975-1980), during which they were initiated in 7
of the country's 19 states. Of these projects, three (Funtua, Gombe, and Gusau)
had completed their initial investment phase by 1981.
The ADPs are the core of the country's Green Revolution programme which
aims to help Nigeria achieve food self-sufficiency by 1985. The Green
Revolution strategy has as its central feature reliance on the smallholder to
increase food production (Government of Nigeria). Subsidies (up to 90 percent
for fertilizer) are supposed to encourage increased use of modern inputs, and
thereby the necessary production increases to achieve food self-sufficiency. As
the Federal Government is the sole procurer and distributer of fertilizer, ADPs
in the past received a disproportionate share of fertilizer, compared to non-ADP
areas (Idachaba). Assuring widespread access to fertilizer, both within ADPs and
between ADP and non-ADP areas, could thus be a determining factor in meeting
the Green Revolution programme's production targets.
To assess the effectiveness of the ADPs as a smallholder strategy, their
design, implementation, and distributional effects are examined, using the
Funtua Project as a case study. The implementation of a project explicitly
designed as an equity oriented project--the Guided Change Project (GCP)--is also
briefly discussed.