Challenges of afforestation programme in Kaduna State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study was carried out to examine the challenges of afforestation programme in Kaduna State, Nigeria. Stratified random sampling was used for the  study. The State was stratified into three political zone, using 30% sampling intensity; seven Local Governments were randomly selected. Four hundred  open and close ended questionnaires were distributed and administered randomly to respondent within the selected communities. The data was  subjected to descriptive and binary Logistics Regression analysis. The result of the study revealed that 66.3% of the respondents were Male. Similarly,  29.4% of the respondents were within the age bracket of 31-40 years. Educational status shows that 36.4% have non-formal education. There was no  significant difference between stakeholders in planning, monitoring, implementation and benefits sharing with afforestation programmes at 0.05 level of  significant. The result obtain revealed that inadequate fund (wms=4.18), inadequate land (wms=3.61), poor government policies (wms=3.53),  Ignorance of the people (wms=3.47), destruction of forest by headers (wms=3.19) and long gestation period (wms=3.18) were respectively considered  very serious challenge (VSC).While fire outbreak (wms=2.96) was considered moderate challenge (MC). Also, inadequate labour (wms=2.28), poor marketing (wms=2.40), bad climatic condition (wms=2.40), effect of pest and diseases (wms=2.65) as well as inadequate seedlings (wms=2.78) were  respectively considered not very serious challenge (NVSC) to Afforestation successes in Kaduna State. The study recommends that Government and other  private organizations should be committed to assisting the people with funds in other to encourage afforestation practices. Furthermore, Flexible  Government policies such as establishment of grazing reserve to cater for livestock, enactment of Laws that favour’s land availability for Afforestation  should be establish. Lastly, the need for Government to enlighten the people on the importance of Afforestation practices through extension Agent and  mass media to boost Afforestation is very necessary.