An Assessment of Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme on Rice Farming in Kano State, Nigeria

Commercial agriculture credit scheme (CACS) is one of the Federal Government programs to encourage commercial agriculture. In Nigeria rice farming is characterized by low productivity and low yield leading to rice shortage. The shortage in production creates the demand and supply gap. This study investigated how the CACS has promoted commercial rice farming in Kano State. Primary data was sourced from 377 beneficiary farmers of CACS through survey method and key informant interview (KII) was conducted. These rice farmers were sampled from three agricultural zones in Kano; Zone I (Rano), Zone II (Danbatta) and Zone III (Gaya). The study employed the household commercialization index (HCI). The study employed the household commercialization index (HCI). The study found that about 42.6% of the farmers got less than one million naira and about 57.4% one to two million naira, 19.5% got three to 4 million naira and 3% got five million naira. The HCI revealed before CACS 36.9% did not go commercial, 48.2% partially went commercial and 14.1% were fully commercial. After CACS 55.6% did not go commercial, 25% partially went commercial and 19.6% fully went commercial. Based on other indices of commercialization, 82% cultivated rice on less than one hectare of land, after CACS 63.9% cultivated rice on less than one hectare of land. The study recommended the need for policy makers to be genuine to enhance self-sufficiency and commercialization to ensure diversification and export of rice product. Government should be able to allocate more production resources to farmers, because this can enhance the realization of self-sufficiency in rice production..