Performance Evaluation of Agricultural Development Programmes in Sokoto State

Agricultural development programmes in Nigeria have historically served as primary vehicles for delivering extension services, input subsidies, and rural infrastructure to smallholder farming populations. In Sokoto State, in the North West geopolitical zone, the Agricultural Development Programme has operated for several decades, yet rigorous evaluation of its current performance against stated objectives is needed to guide programme reform and resource allocation. This study evaluates the performance of agricultural development programmes in Sokoto State from the perspective of farmer beneficiaries and programme staff. A sample of 80 beneficiary farmers and 20 programme staff members was selected using stratified and purposive sampling from five programme coverage zones. Performance assessment covered service delivery timeliness, farmer satisfaction, extension worker-to-farmer ratios, input distribution effectiveness, and outcome attribution. Descriptive statistics and a programme performance scorecard were developed. Results indicate that the average extension worker serves over 2,000 farmers, far exceeding the recommended ratio of 1 to 400. Input distribution through the programme reached only 34 percent of enrolled beneficiaries in the assessment period. Farmer satisfaction scores were lowest for timeliness of input delivery and highest for quality of agricultural training. Staff motivation and remuneration challenges were consistently cited by programme officers. The study recommends programme restructuring to integrate community-based extension approaches, leverage private agro-dealers as last-mile input delivery partners, and implement quarterly performance monitoring using digital data collection tools in Sokoto State. Keywords: agricultural development programme, performance evaluation, Sokoto State, extension services, programme management