SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPACT OF THE ACTIVITIES OF THE ZIMBABWEAN WHITE FARMERS IN EDU LOCAL GOVERNEMENT AREA KWARA STATE

The study assessed the socio?economic impact of the Zimbabwean white farmers on the host communities; Shonga, Dumagi, and Todo in Edu Local Government Area of Kwara State. Two set of questionnaire was administered to gathered information on the socio-economic impact of the large scale commercial farming by the Zimbabwean white farmers. The first set of questionnaire was administered to the people of the three areas selected for the study, while the second set of questionnaire was administered to the Zimbabwean white farmers. A total of 385 respondent were used as the sample size, drawn from the sample frame (10,318). On the other hand, 5 white farmers were administered the second questionnaire, this was based on the number of white farms in the communities. Two hypotheses were tested in the study: the first shows that there is no significant difference in the monthly income of the people before and after the coming of the white farmers, the result shows that the calculated t value of .000 is < the P-value of 1.000 (2-tailed) under 8 degrees of freedom; the second hypothesis reveals that there is a significant relationship between the coming of the white farmers and improvement in farming skills of the host communities. The result shows that the calculated chi value is greater than P-value of 14.292 and .074 respectively. On a whole, the coming of the white farmers has brought some positive impact among the host community, however, the government need to fulfill its own part of the understanding- provision off adequate security, electricity, good roads and pipe-borne water.