Cassava Innovation Application among small scale farmers in North Central Nigeria: A panacea for farmers livelihood status

Abstract

The study assess cassava innovation adoption among small scale farmers in North Central Nigeria. Specific objectives are to; describe socio-economic characteristics of the respondents, examines sources of information, determine level of cassava innovation adoption, and to identify the constraining factors affecting cassava innovation adoption in the study area. A multistage sampling techniques was used to select 750 cassava farmers. Primary data were collected with validated questionnaires having reliability coefficient of r=0.87. Descriptive statistics, adoption scale and factor analysis were employed for data counts. The results revealed that, the mean age was 35.5years, 60.0% and 96.0% were male and married. 57% had secondary education, 73.3% were members of cooperative. 96.0% and 73.3% of the respondents operates less than two hectares and had annual income from N 151,000- N200, 000 respectively. Majority (73.3%) acquired their land through inheritance. 80% had no extension contact. Major source of information was radio. Among innovations adopted were improved cassava variety (TME419) with adoption score of 78.7% which ranked 1st and the use of pickup van for transportation with adoption score of 77.3% which rank 2nd. In adequate extension service and poor extension contact were the major constraints to cassava innovations adoption with the mean values of and respectively. It was recommended that, there should be adequate and quality extension contact to acquaint cassava farmers with technical information to increase productivity and improve their livelihood status.