Files
Abstract
The Seed Voucher System (SVS) was adopted by the Emergency Rice Initiative (ERI)
to grant farmers access to certified improved seed, in order to mitigate the adverse
effect of the 2008 global food crisis on resource poor farmers in rural Nigeria. This
study examined the impact of the SVS on income inequality reduction and rice income
per hectare among rice farming households in Nigeria. Structured questionnaire was
used to collect Baseline (2008) and post-voucher (2010) data, using multistage
sampling procedure. Using Randomized Control Trial approach, 160 farmers out of
the 600 rice farmers randomly selected in 2008 received the seed voucher (treated),
and others did not (control). The results revealed that poverty and income inequality
declined significantly after the intervention. The SVS also lead to significant increase
in rice income per hectare. Therefore, the use of seed vouches to grant farmers access
to production inputs could actually be a way out of the endemic poverty situation in
rural Nigeria and can also be used to redistribute income among rural households in
Nigeria.