The Impact of the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme on the Livelihoods of Smallholder Farmers in Southeast, Nigeria

Abstract

The study assessed the impact of the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) on the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in Southeast, Nigeria. Quantitative data were explored using a cross-sectional survey hinged on the difference-in-difference, a retrospective causal-comparative impact evaluation design. All ABP beneficiaries and non-beneficiary smallholder farmers constituted the population for the study. A multi-stage sampling procedure was employed to select a representative sample size of 381 for the beneficiaries and 384 for the non-beneficiaries. Data were collected using a structured interview schedule. The collected data were analysed using mean, standard deviation, t-test and DiD estimator. The findings show that the ABP intervention did not significantly (β = 78,874; t = 0.02) impact the livelihood assets of smallholder farmers on the whole, though it had an impact on some human (level of education: DiD=0.04) and financial assets (level of access to credit: DiD=0.01). The Project Management Team should critically review the programme’s design and implementation to ensure it better addresses the factors that influence livelihood assets.