Abstract:
This study assessed the farmers’ adoption behaviours towards maize production technologies in Okitipupa and Irele local Government Areas, Ondo State, Nigeria. The inquiry investigated the socio economic characteristics of the respondents, identified maize production technologies adopted by the farmers, determined the factor that influence the adoption of maize production technologies, identified the constraints towards adoption of maize production technologies by the respondents. Primary data were collected with the aid of interview schedule which was administered on one hundred and sixty respondents. Random sampling techniques were used to select two (2) Local Government Areas in Ondo State. At the second stage two communities were selected from each chosen LGA, giving four communities. The communities were stratified into council wards and eight wards were chosen, twenty household were randomly selected in each of the wards giving sample size of 160 from the study area. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistical tools such as mean, frequency and percentage also inferential statistics used were Chi-square, Pearson product moment correlation (PPMC).
Results of the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents showed that majority of the farmers were above 60years of age (83.3 percent); and 73.8 percent of the respondents were males. It was further revealed that majority of the respondents (46.3 percent) had primary education, family size was relatively low, with a mean value of six persons. Mean value of farm size was 1.83 hectares, which fall within small scale category. Result also showed that 87.5 percent of the respondents regularly planted improved maize varieties regularly. In addition, 86.3 percent of the respondents had poor access to credit.
The findings showed that the grand mean of 3.82, which is greater than 3.0; indicated that the farmers have positive perception towards the adoption of maize production technology. Also, the grand means of 2.45 which is lesser than 2.50 revealed that the respondents’ have low adoptive behavior towards maize production technologies in the study area.
Chi-square analysis revealed that all the socioeconomic characteristics of the respondents had significant effect on their adoption behaviour. Also, Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) analysis showed that there was no significant relationship between the respondents’ perception of the constraints that influence maize production and their adoption of maize production technologies. It is therefore, concluded that, adoption of improved maize production technologies is considered an important input for the achievement of increased agricultural productivity and food security status of farm households in Nigeria. It was recommended that government should raise awareness and educate farmers especially the land owners to adopt improved maize production technology in order to increase food security in the area and improve their standard of living
