Towards Commercialization of Irrigated Agriculture in Nigeria: Lessons from the Lower Anambra Irrigation Project South-East Nigeria

Irrigated agriculture commercialization is a necessary step towards realizing Nigeria’s goal of poverty reduction and rural development. Commercial irrigation farming in this paper is taken to mean producing above subsistence and utilizing farm resources efficiently. This paper is a case study in the Lower Anambra Irrigation Project South-Eastern Nigeria. A sample of 143 farmers in the scheme, was selected for interview with well structured questionnaire. A focus group discussion with key farmers and River basin development staff was also used to elicit information. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the socio economic characteristics of the farmers, while a Cobb- Douglas production function analysis was used to ascertain productivity of resources used in the farm. The results show that given the farmer characteristics, and resource efficiencies, opportunity for commercialization of irrigated agriculture in the public sector irrigation scheme exists