EFFECTS OF FARMERS’ SOCIO-ECONOMIC AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS ON CASSAVA PRODUCTION IN ONDO STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study examined the effects of socio-economic and psychological characteristics of farmers on cassava production in selected areas of Ondo State. It was designed to ascertain the socio–economic characteristics of cassava farmers, describe the psychological characteristics of cassava farmers, discuss the sources of information used by the farmers for cassava production, determine the attitude of farmers towards cassava production, show the income generated by the farmers from cassava production annually and finally ascertain the perception of farmers towards value – addition to cassava product in the study area. A structured interview schedule was employed to collect primary data from Ondo State, Nigeria. Two Local Government Areas (LGAs) were purposively selected from the study area based on their volume of cassava production in the State. These were Ose and Akoko South West LGAs and 120 respondents were interviewed. The results collected were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics used were Chi-square, Gross Margin Analysis and Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC). The study revealed that the mean age was 43 years which confirms that most cassava producers were middle aged. There were more males (77.5%) engaged in cassava production than females (22.5%) in the study area. Literacy was not an issue with the farmers as 85% of the respondents were educated. The average household size in the study area was 10 which implies a large size as 90.8% of the respondents were married. Farming experience did not affect cassava production as 57.7 % of the respondents had less than 10 years farming experience. Most of the cassava farms were on small holdings with 60.8% respondents having farm size less than 2.0 hectares. The average annual income from cassava was N205, 304.70 which implies that cassava production is a profitable venture with an average cassava yield of 711.6kg in a year. The Chi-square analysis result of the perception of cassava farmers and socio-economic characteristics revealed that age, sex, marital status, 3 education and household size had a significant relationship at 0.05% level of significance. Only religion did not have a significant relationship. The correlation analysis of income versus perception towards cassava added value showed an г-value of 0.280 at 0.01 level of significance showing a significant but weak relationship, that is, the more income the farmers get, the more they are likely to add value to cassava. Perception statements of cassava farmers on their production have grand means of 3.1 indicating a good inclination towards cassava production. The major source of information to the farmers was from co-farmers. It was therefore, concluded that socio-economic characteristics of the farmers affected cassava production. Income generation of farmers had effect on value addition to cassava and information sources available to farmers were found to be mainly from co-farmers. The relatively high annual income from the study area showed that cassava production is profitable. It was recommended that government should embark on programmes and policies that will attract more people into cassava production since it is a profitable business. Farmers are equally encouraged to add more values to cassava as this will increase income generated from cassava production.