Asian Journal of Sociological Research

Rural dwellers have gotten the understanding of the need to rise up to the development of their own community as many of such communities are neglected by government in term of physical and socio-economic development. Hence this study focused on the level of rural dwellers’ participation in community-based agriculture and rural development projects in Gombe state, Nigeria. Multistage sampling technique was used to sample 71 respondents from 3 selected Rural Village Areas (RVAs). The results show that 36.6% of the respondents were between age 41 and 50, 31.0% between 31 and 40, and 11.3% below 31years (mean=43.7). Of all the respondents, female were 50.7%, 94.4% married and 78.9% educated. Majority of the respondents (69.0%) were farmers, 52.1% earned below N14,711.27 and 64.8% had household size >7 (mean = 9.9). The result also reveals that 70.4% had high level of participation in the project. No significant relationship existed between participation and sex (χ²=0.014, p < 0.05). However, significant relationship existed between participation and age (χ²= 76.845, p < 0.05), marital status (χ²=55.901, p < 0.05), household size (r= 0.261, p < 0.01), education (χ²=63.451, p < 0.05), primary occupation (χ²=76.324, p < 0.05) and secondary occupation χ²= 27.873, p < 0.05). There was a significant relationship between respondents’ level of income (r=0.276, p =0.020), respondents’ level of information sources utilisation (r=0.224, p = 0.060) and participation in community-based agriculture and rural development project. In conclusion, the rural dwellers in Gombe state participated at higher level in community based agriculture and rural development project. Also, education and the sources of information available to rural dwellers enhanced participation in community based project. It is therefore recommended that appropriate source of information should be employed when introducing a development project to rural dwellers.