CHAPTER ONE
1.1 Background to the study
Capacity building is a process through which individuals, groups and organizations are empowered to meet development challenges (Miller, 2018). Capacity building is the process of developing and strengthening the skills, instincts, resources and ability that farmers need for them to survive, adapt and thrive in the fast changing world of technology through appropriate knowledge, skills, system, attitude and resources that will enable farmers especially the women farmer to be effective and efficient in processing of their farm produce (Ann and Olaitan, 2017).United Nations (2016) defines capacity building as a conceptual approach to development that focuses on understanding the obstacles that inhibit people, governments, international organizations and non-governmental organizations from realizing their developmental goals while enhancing the abilities that will allow them to achieve measurable and sustainable results. The term is also referred as capacity development. In the context of this study, capacity building involves determining the capacity building needs of dry season vegetable farmers in Anambra state and influencing appropriate knowledge, skills, system, attitude and resources that enable dry season farmers to cultivate vegetables more efficiently and effectively. However, since the cultivation of dry season irrigated vegetables, there are lots of differences in the quality of the plants produced regarding texture, coloration, length and size of leaves, durability, and taste and the quantity of vegetables produced. In addition, dry season vegetable production is seen as a way of alleviating poverty among the rural dweller.
Needs assessment is a both a process and phenomenon which is very important in the initial stages of community project formulation and preparation and analysis thereafter in the subsequent stages of project implementation. In economic development process, needs are defined as the gap between what is the current situation or circumstances and what the community desire to achieve. Therefore, needs assessment is a process of identifying and measuring gaps between the current situation and the desired situation, prioritizing the gaps and determine ways of bridging them.