Abstract:
The study evaluated the factors affecting the adoption of improved maize varieties in Ondo State, Nigeria. It determined the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents; assessed the profitability of cultivating the maize varieties and the perception of respondents about them; evaluated the factors affecting their adoption of maize seed technologies, and identified factors militating against maize production in the study area. A multistage sampling technique was used to select 150 farmers in the study area. Primary data were used and it was collected with the use of structured questionnaire. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Likert Scale and Probit Model. Majority (78%) of the respondents consisted of men. The study showed that 82% of the respondents had formal education while 88% were married. The average household size was 8 with a standard deviation of 4.09 while all the respondents had other sources of income apart from farming. The respondents were small holder farmers with less than 4 hectares which were fragmented and scattered while 54% of the farmers inherited their farmlands. The average age spent in maize production was 22.87 years with standard deviation of 4.77years. The Ministry of Agriculture, friends and local market served as the sources of maize seed planted by the respondents. Radio, co-farmers, Farmers forum, agricultural workshops and training and extension agents were the major source of information about the maize seed. Majority of the respondents (90.7%) had frequent extension agent’s visit. Insufficient finance, unstable market prices and limited agricultural input supply were the major problems encountered in maize production by all the respondents. The Probit result showed that Extension visit (0.8452) and Years in maize farming (0.0359) were significant and had a positive influence on the adoption of the improved maize seed. Age (0.0442), Distance between farm and market (-0.1725) and Tenancy (-0.4987) were also significant in the study, but had a negative influence on the determinants of adoption of improved maize seed. The profitability analysis carried out showed that cultivating the improved maize variety was profitable and beneficial with a gross margin of N 245,922.24 and a net profit of N239, 223.70. It can be concluded that increase in Extension agents visit and an increase in the farmer’s years of maize cultivation will increase the adoption of improved maize seed variety in Ondo State.
