Adoption of organic farming practices among rural maize farmers in Niger State, Nigeria.

Abstract

The study investigated adoption of organic practices among rural maize farmers in Niger state, Nigeria, with specific objectives of describing socioeconomic characteristics of the farmers, identifying farmers’ sources of information on organic practices, examining adoption level of organic practices in maize production and identifying constraints limiting adoption of organic practices by the farmers. A multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select 222 maize farmers and data collected through structured questionnaire were analyzed using frequency counts, means and percentages. Results obtained shows that farmers in the study area were males (70.3%), mostly married (75.7%) with formal education (62.6%) at mean age and household size of 35.8 years and six (6) persons respectively. Also, farmers regularly acquire information about organic practices through extension agents (72.5%), relatives and neighbours (90.1%). Similarly, eight (8) out of the 15 practices identified were adopted. These include crop rotation (59.9%), mixed cropping (79.7%), mixed farming (73.0%), hoe/hand weeding (61.3%), slash and burn (54.1%), hoe/minimum tillage (66.2%), farm yard manure (53.2%) and crop residue incorporation (83.8%). Total adoption by the farmers was restricted by constraints such as; high costs of organic inputs (x̅ =2.92), Difficulty in accessing loans for organic crop production (x̅ =2.86) and low supply of manure (x̅ =2.86). To this end, adoption level of organic practices among rural maize farmers in Niger State can be said to be moderate thus; it was recommended that change agents should enlighten farmers on various organic methods of weed, pest and disease control through the major sources of information in the area.