FACTORS AFFECTING THE ADOPTION OF IMPROVED PLANTING MATERIALS BY CASSAVA FARMERS IN EKITI STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study was carried out to examine the factors affecting the adoption of improved planting materials by cassava farmers in Ekiti state of Nigeria. The objectives were to determine factors affecting adoption of improved cassava – planting materials by cassava farmers in the study area, examine the socio economic characteristic of cassava farmers; identify the information sources by which farmers become aware of improved technology; determine the levels of adoption of improved planting materials by the respondents; examine the probability of adoption of improved planting materials by cassava farmers; and identify the various problems faced by cassava farmers in the study area. One hundred and eighty cassava farmers were selected through random sampling procedure. Data were collected from them using a set of well structured questionnaire. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics and econometric method of data analysis, using binary logistic regression model to analyze the probability of adoption of improved cassava planting materials. The study revealed that the modal age is 61 – 70 years closely followed by 51- 60 and greater than 70 years which suggest that young people are not interested in farming again. Data analysis shows that majority (85.1 %) were male, 66.9 % were married, majority of respondents (71.3%) were Christians, 51.9% had formal education while 48.1 % did not attend any formal school. Majority of the sampled farmers (66.3 %) took farming as major occupation while 33.7 % work on the farm on part time as they engaged in other jobs like salary job, bricklaying, carpentry, trading, driving and hunting. The most frequent range of total farm size of the respondents was 0.1 – 0.5 hectare (46.4 %) while only 8.3 % had above 2.0 hectares of cassava farm during the study. In having access to agric extension, 50.8 % of the respondents claimed to have access to agric extension while 49.2 % did not. Their sources of awareness indicate that majority (37.6 %), got aware of innovation on radio, closely followed by 28.2 % from extension agents and 26.4 % from other farmers who are either colleagues or farm neighbour. The study of adoption level indicate that majority 55.8 % had finally adopted, 19.3% are on trial stage, 7.2% are still evaluating, 13.8% had shown interest in knowing more about improved varieties while only 3.9% said truly they have aware that improved cassava cultivars is available in town. Cassava production is however fraught with many problems with insufficient labour being the highest (34.2%) followed by pest and diseases 23.8%, others are high cost of labour 16.6 %, lack of credit 10.0% ,low extension contacts 8.8 % marketing problem 5.0% and others. The result of logit regression (R2) of 0.65 is high meaning that about 65 % of adoption of improved cassava planting material is explained by the explanatory variables. Access to Agricultural extension service, age, level of education, years of experience in cassava production, farm size, access to credit and output were statistically significant factors that influenced the adoption of improved cassava planting materials among the respondents. Recommendation from the study include among others strengthened the activities of the ADP as it was when World Bank was sponsoring the project to ensure that agricultural innovations get to end users, agricultural inputs should be highly subsidized