Enabling Poor Rural

Enabling poor ruralpeople to overcomepoverty in NigeriaRural poverty in NigeriaThe Federal Republic of Nigeria has a population of more than 160 million – the largest in Africa – and a fast-growing economy.Agriculture is the mainstay of the economy, contributing about 40 per cent of GDP. The agriculture sector employs approximately two-thirds of the country’s total labour force and provides a livelihood forabout 90 per cent of the rural population. Nigeria is the world’s largestproducer of cassava, yam and cowpea – all staple foods in sub-SaharanAfrica. It is also a major producer of fish. Yet it is a food-deficit nationand imports large amounts of grain, livestock products and fish.

Nigeria’s huge agricultural resource base offers great potential for growth. Recent

government policies have started to show results: The agricultural sector reportedly grew

by 7 per cent a year between 2003 and 2007, and at a slightly lower rate in recent years.

Still, the area of land under cultivation could be doubled. Of an estimated

71 million hectares of arable land, only about half is presently under production. And

there is substantial scope for an increase in irrigation, which now covers only 7 per cent

of irrigable land. Irrigation and other inputs would substantially increase average yields

for major staple crops, which are below those in other developing countries.

©IFAD/P. Tartagni

2 ©IFAD/H. W

agner

Despite Nigeria’s plentiful agricultural resources and oil wealth, poverty is widespread in thecountry and has increased since the late 1990s. Some 70 per cent of Nigerians live on lessthan US$1.25 a day.

Poverty is especially severe in rural areas, where up to 80 per cent of the population livesbelow the poverty line, and social services and infrastructure are limited. The country’s poorrural women and men depend on agriculture for food and income. About 90 per cent ofNigeria’s food is produced by small-scale farmers who cultivate small plots of land and depend on rainfall rather than irrigation systems.

The poorest groups eke out a subsistence living but often go short of food, particularlyduring the pre-harvest period. The productivity of the rural population is also hindered by ill health, particularly HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

Women play a major role in the production, processing and marketing of food crops. Yet women and households headed solely by women are often the most chronically poormembers of rural communities. Men have higher social status and, as a result, moreaccess to schooling and training. In recent decades, the number of men migrating fromrural areas in search of employment has increased, and the number of households headedsolely by women has grown substantially.

Rural infrastructure in Nigeria has long been neglected. Investments in health, educationand water supply have been focused largely on the cities. As a result, the rural populationhas extremely limited access to services such as schools and health centres, and abouthalf of the population lacks access to safe drinking water.

Neglect of rural infrastructure affects the profitability of agricultural production. The lack ofrural roads impedes the marketing of agricultural commodities, prevents farmers fromselling their produce at reasonable prices, and leads to spoilage. Limited accessibility cutssmall-scale farmers off from sources of inputs, equipment and new technology, and thiskeeps yields low.

As the population swells and puts pressure on diminishing resources, escalatingenvironmental problems further threaten food production. Land degradation as a result ofextensive agriculture, deforestation and overgrazing are already severe in many parts of thecountry. Drought has become common in the north, and erosion caused by heavy rains,floods and oil pollution is a major problem in the south and south-east.

Civil unrest also aggravates poverty. Religious and ethnic tensions continue to brew indifferent parts of Nigeria, erupting into outbreaks of violence and leading, in turn, toescalating poverty and malnutrition.

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Eradicating rural poverty in NigeriaThe Nigerian Government’s National Economic Empowerment and DevelopmentStrategy (NEEDS) outlines policies and strategies designed to promote economicgrowth. The Seven-Point Agenda for Food Security and Poverty Alleviation complementsand adds to the national strategy. NEEDS, a federal strategy, is complemented byequivalent approaches at the state level (the State Economic Empowerment andDevelopment Strategy, or SEEDS) and the local level (the Local Government EconomicEmpowerment and Development Strategy, or LEEDS).

In line with NEEDS, the government’s Commercial Agriculture DevelopmentProgramme aims to strengthen food security, increase employment opportunities andboost agriculture as an engine for broad-based economic growth in the country. IFAD’s support to the programme focuses on smallholder farmers and community-based poverty reduction.

The main goal of NEEDS is the reduction of poverty. The government is particularlyconcerned about worsening rural poverty, rising unemployment rates among youngpeople and the marginalization of women.

The government recognizes, as well, the importance of empowering people to designand manage their own development activities. The current strategy for the protection of poor rural people includes efforts to strengthen:

• Access to credit and land

• Participation in decision-making

• Access to agricultural extension services

• Access to improved seeds and planting materials, farm inputs and tools

• Traditional thrift, savings and insurance schemes

New policies, legislation and development programmes designed to reduce povertyaddress its principal causes: weak governance; social conflict; limited technologicalinnovations that hinder productivity; environmental degradation, which aggravatespoverty by reducing the natural resource base; and the debilitating effects of HIV/AIDS,tuberculosis and malaria.

Current policy interventions also include a focus on fully integrating women into theeconomic mainstream. Education and training opportunities aim to enable them toplay a full role in the economic, social, political and cultural life of the country. There isa particular emphasis on promoting rural women’s secure access to land, water andfinancial services.

Additional priorities for the government in rural areas include:

• Boosting agricultural productivity

• Promoting off-farm rural enterprises

• Improving water and electricity supplies, communications, roads, schools and health facilities

The government is committed to strengthening rural financial services, includingimproved access to credit, as a key to reducing poverty. The consolidation ofcommercial banks, coupled with the promotion of microfinance, has created a strongfinancial sector. Some 25 commercial banks have branch networks across the country.They can provide all types of financial services, including agricultural finance.

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Programmes and projects: 9

Total cost: US$694.7 million

IFAD loans: US$225.1 million

Directly benefiting: 2,192,680 households

IFAD’s strategy in NigeriaSince 1985, IFAD has financed nine programmes and projects in Nigeria, with a total loan commitment of over US$225 million. The country currently attracts over 40 per cent of the financial resources that IFAD allocates to Western and Central Africa.All programmes and projects have addressed the livelihood needs of poor rural people,including smallholders, women, small business owners, poor fishing communities,young people and landless people.

These operations have contributed to:

• Generating and disseminating technology to increase incomes and family foodsecurity, while also introducing approaches for effective soil and water conservationand environmental management

• Fostering demand-driven and participatory approaches to agricultural and ruralsupport services

• Strengthening institutional capacities to ensure the sustainability of successfuldevelopment initiatives

IFAD’s support to the Nigerian Government’s poverty reduction programme in ruralareas targets large numbers of smallholder farmers and is essentially people-centred.IFAD supports programmes and projects that work with communities, withsmallholder farmers as the key players. The organization also promotes commodity-based interventions that provide technical and financial support alongseveral value chains – such as livestock products, rice and other cereals, roots andtubers, vegetables and agroforestry products.

The objectives are to empower poor rural people, especially women, by increasing their access to resources, infrastructure and services; and to promote the managementof land, water and common property by local communities, helping to overcomeenvironmental degradation. IFAD-supported programmes and projects address issues such as erosion and the loss of soil fertility, as well as coastal zone naturalresource management.

IFAD directs assistance towards:

• Empowering small-scale farmers, landless people and rural women to generatesustainable incomes from farming and other activities

• Supporting pro-poor reforms and local governance to expand access to information,effective transport systems, village infrastructure and technology

• Improving access by poor rural communities to financial and social services

At the government level, IFAD helps build capacity and strengthen institutions thatprovide services to poor rural people. It assists with necessary policy changes,developing local organizations to enhance their effective participation, and it promotes initiatives to foster rapid poverty reduction and economic growth led by the private sector.

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Approved IFAD loan: US$74.9 million

Approved IFAD grant: US$472,000

Duration: 6 years

Directly benefiting: 17,480 households

Value Chain Development Programme This programme takes a holistic and demand-driven approach to addressing

constraints along the cassava and rice value chains. It does so through an inclusive

strategy, strengthening the capacity of actors along the chain – including producers and

processors – as well as public and private institutions, service providers, policy-makers

and regulators.

At the same time, the programme strongly emphasizes the development of

commodity-specific Value Chain Action Plans at the local government level, which

serve as the basis for rolling out sustainable activities to reduce poverty and accelerate

economic growth. The objective is to sustainably enhance rural incomes and food

security. The target groups include 15,000 smallholder farming households,

1,680 processors and 800 traders.

Specifically, the programme focuses on:

• Developing agricultural markets and increasing market access for smallholder

farmers and small to medium-scale agro-processors

• Enhancing smallholder productivity – and thus increasing the volume and quality of

marketable produce – by strengthening farmers’ organizations as well as supporting

smallholder production

Thirty-five per cent of the matching grants provided by the programme are to be

earmarked for women, enabling them to upgrade their production and processing

technologies and capacities. In addition, the programme is applying the Gender Action

Learning System, a community-led methodology for rural livelihood development and

gender equality.

Community-Based Agricultural and Rural Development Programme

Rural Finance Institutions Building Programme

Community-Based Natural Resource Management Programme – Niger Delta

Value Chain Development Programme

Abuja

Ongoing operations

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Rural Finance Institution-Building Programme (RUFIN)The objective of this programme is to strengthen microfinance institutions and

establish linkages between them and formal financial institutions in 12 Nigerian states.

It lays the foundation for the long-term development of a sustainable rural financial

system that will eventually operate throughout the country.

By reaching out to poor rural people, the programme ensures that they gain access to

financial services and can invest in improving productivity in agriculture and small

businesses. Marginalized groups, such as women, young people and those with

physical disabilities, are particularly targeted by RUFIN.

The programme supports the development of target-group organizations into rural

finance institutions that improve poor rural people’s access to low-cost credit. It also

assists microfinance institutions, including the Nigerian Agricultural Cooperative

and Rural Development Bank, the National Poverty Alleviation Programme, and

microfinance banks and NGO microfinance institutions operating in rural areas.

The programme helps them strengthen rural outreach and improve services to the

most vulnerable groups, notably households headed by women.

In addition, the programme works to develop new alternative financial products,

promote an improved legal, policy and regulatory framework, and establish linkages

between the financial system and the rural production system.

Community-Based Natural Resource Management Programme –Niger Delta This programme has made a community development fund available to support local

initiatives in sustainable livelihood improvement, natural resource management and

the provision of small-scale community infrastructure. The goal of the programme is to

improve the standards of living and quality of life of poor rural people in the Niger

Delta, with a special focus on women and young people.

A major concern is to reduce tensions and conflict by improving employment

opportunities for young people and channelling their energies into the development

of sustainable livelihoods and natural resource management activities.

In the nine Niger Delta states of Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo,

Imo, Ondo and Rivers, poverty is severe and widespread despite a wealth of natural

resources. Poverty is especially prevalent among small-scale farmers cultivating

food crops and among fishing communities using only rudimentary equipment.

These groups lack food security and are highly vulnerable to environmental shocks.

The programme encourages them to participate in development activities. It also builds

the capacity of government institutions at different levels to meet the development

needs of these groups, and consolidates partnerships among donors, NGOs and

other agencies.


IFAD loan: US$15.0 million

Cofinancing: Federal government (US$3.8 million); state/local government(US$40.2 million); Niger DeltaDevelopment Commission (US$15.0 million); clients (US$4.4 million)

Duration: 8 years




IFAD grant: US$400,000

Cofinancing: Federal government (US$6.2 million); Ford Foundation (US$0.5 million); Central Bank of Nigeria(US$1.0 million); National PovertyEradication Programme (US$0.1 million);Nigerian Agricultural, Cooperative andRural Development Bank (US$0.8 million);microfinance banks (US$1.6 million);National Micro-Finance Bank (US$0.8 million); participating institutions(US$0.5 million); clients (US$1.0 million)

Duration: 8 years


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Community-Based Agricultural and Rural Development Programme This programme was launched in eight northern Nigerian states where poverty is

widespread: Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto and Zamfara in the north-west, and

Borno and Yobe in the north-east. It builds on IFAD’s previous experience with

implementing community-based projects in the northern states of Sokoto and Katsina,

and its objective is to help the most vulnerable groups improve their incomes and

living conditions.

The programme targets a large section of the rural population, especially women,

landless people, nomadic pastoralists and small-scale farmers, and those with

only marginal lands. It is designed to empower these groups to participate in

development activities.

Specifically, the programme works to:

• Promote awareness and build the capacity of public and private-sector service

providers to respond to the needs of poor rural women and men

• Empower poor communities to manage their own development and support

vulnerable groups

• Improve agricultural practices, resolve conflicts between farmers and pastoralists,

and intensify crop and livestock production

• Develop or upgrade safe water supplies, environmental sanitation, irrigation,

and health and education facilities

©IFAD/F. G

ianzi



Cofinancing: Federal government (US$2.9 million); state/local government(US$28.6 million); communities (US$4.0 million); technical assistance(US$3.0 million)

Duration: 7 years


Building a poverty-free worldThe International Fund for Agricultural

Development (IFAD) works with poor

rural people to enable them to grow

and sell more food, increase their

incomes and determine the direction

of their own lives. Since 1978, IFAD

has invested almost US$14 billion

in grants and low-interest loans to

developing countries through projects

empowering about 400 million

people to break out of poverty,

thereby helping to create vibrant rural

communities. IFAD is an international

financial institution and a specialized

UN agency based in Rome – the

United Nations’ food and agriculture

hub. It is a unique partnership of

168 members from the Organization

of the Petroleum Exporting

Countries (OPEC), other developing

countries and the Organisation for

Economic Co-operation and

Development (OECD).

International Fund for Agricultural DevelopmentVia Paolo di Dono, 44 00142 Rome, ItalyTel: +39 06 54591 Fax: +39 06 5043463E-mail: [email protected] www.ifad.org

August 2012

Enabling poor rural peopleto overcome poverty

Contact Atsuko TodaCountry Programme ManagerIFAD Country OfficeUN House, Central Area, Abuja FCTNigeriaTel: +234 0818 4828 770E-mail: [email protected]

Benjamin OdoemenaCountry Programme OfficerIFAD Country OfficeUN House, Central Area, Abuja FCTNigeriaMobile: +234 803 6660 072E-mail: [email protected]

For further information on rural povertyin Nigeria visit the Rural Poverty Portal:http://www.ruralpovertyportal.org

©IFAD/P. Tartagni

Roots and Tubers ExpansionProgramme Total cost: US$36.1 million


Cofinancing: Federal/state government (US$13.02 million); clients(US$0.009 million)

Duration: 8 years


Sokoto State Agricultural andCommunity DevelopmentProjectTotal cost: US$17.2 million


Cofinancing: European Union (US$2.3 million); UN DevelopmentProgramme (US$2.4 million)

Duration: 1994–2000


Katsina State Agricultural andCommunity DevelopmentProject Total cost: US$28.8 million


Cofinancing: UN Development Programme(US$1.9 million)



Artisanal FisheriesDevelopment Project Total cost: US$19.7 million


Cofinancing: UN Development Programme(US$0.5 million)



Multi-State AgriculturalDevelopment Project Total cost: US$256.4 million


Cofinancing: World Bank/InternationalBank for Reconstruction and Development(US$162.0 million)



Completed operations

Documents

Enabling Poor Rural