DELTA STATES

This study focused on the assessment of the socio-economic empowerment intervention of Rubber Research Institute of Nigeria (RRIN) on rural rubber farmers in Edo and Delta states. RRIN was formed with the aim of researching into rubber and latex trees for its economic purposes. Among its mandate is to also impact on the smallholder farmers who have chosen to farm rubber trees. Over the years, there have been series of complaints by the farmers which led to the development of empowerment intervention programmes by RRIN in order to educate these farmers on the best practices of rubber plantation. The general objective of this study therefore was to analyse the effect of the socio-economic empowerment intervention of (RRIN) on rural rubber farmers in Edo and Delta state, with the intent to determine the effect of the vocational trainings and new rubber based technology acquired by the smallholder rubber farmers while identifying the constrain they faced before and after RRIN intervention. The study adopted the survey research design and the population of the study consisted of all the smallholder rubber farmers in the selected local government areas of Edo and Delta states respectively which was 853. The sample size of this study was 800 and the study adopted the multistage sampling techniques. Copies of questionnaires were administered to 800 respondents and764 were retrieved, valid and used for the analysis. Six (6) (RRIN) staff were also interviewed through the in-depth interview method. Quantitative and qualitative data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics and manual content analytical method respectively. Analysis of the data revealed that most of the respondents (47.49) had primary education in Edo while Delta had (26.75). Those who had tertiary education in Edo were (25.86%) and Delta state had (45.45%), implying that most of the respondents were literate and can easily comprehend and adopt new technological innovations. The results showed a multiple response with fair distribution of impact of the technologies; 26.16% in Edo and 24.92% of the respondents agreed that they have benefited in knowledge enhancement on rubber management techniques n Edo and Delta respectively,and the intervention program has helped in improving their farm yield and also financial status. This means that the training impacted the farmers’ economically. Constraints identified by the farmers before the intervention include, inadequate funds, inadequate information on rubber technology, pests and disease control. It was concluded that though the intervention program has impacted the smallholder farmers, The research recommended that the intervention program should be a regular activity of the Institute.