Ewuity Considerations in Planning and Implementing Rural Development Projects in Nigeria: An Evaluation of the Funtua Project

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.