Sokoto State Agricultural and Community Development Project

Sokoto State Agricultural and Community Development Project

Sokoto state is particularly subject to environmental degradation. Land, water and soil fertility have been seriously depleted as a result of intensive cropping and overgrazing, and droughts have become increasingly common occurrences in the area. Since most of the rural population practices subsistence farming, the decline of the resource base brings chronic food shortages and greater poverty. 

The project goal was to increase the productivity, income and food security of smallholder farming families by introducing measures to conserve the environment and improve crop yields. The project targeted farmers who have less than 2 ha to cultivate, with a special emphasis on women, households headed by women and landless families. Specific objectives of the project included: 

• halting resource degradation and, where possible, repairing environmental damage
• encouraging the participation of local communities in development programmes
• training local village communities to manage their own development programmes
• providing access to credit, agricultural inputs and irrigated land where possible
• evolving a sustainable project design and management approach combining local participation and private sector involvement, to be replicated elsewhere in the country

Source: IFAD