ANALYSIS OF ORGANIC VEGETABLE FARMING IN NIGER STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study analyzed organic vegetable farming in Niger State. Data used for the study were obtained using questionnaire and structured interview schedule, administered to 120 randomly selected vegetable farmers. Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were used for the analysis. Poisson regression model was used to determine the factors affecting adoption of organic fertilizer in vegetable farming. The study revealed that 94.1% of the respondents were between 21-40years with the mean age of 37years, large proportion of the respondents 99.2% were male and 80% were married. Majority 82.5% of the respondents had formal education with the mean of 8years, mean household size of 7persons and mean farm size of 2.0875 hectares. Among the factors that significantly affect the adoption of organic fertilizer were gender, age, household size, education, income, farm size and farmers perception. Majority of the respondents had positive attitude towards the use of organic manure and strongly agreed that: vegetable farming is more profitable using organic fertilizer, vegetable production is cheaper using organic fertilizer, and using organic fertilizers help improves the environment. The most important perceived severed constraints were; transportation of organic fertilizer is expressive, organic manure are scarce and have offensive odour. It is recommended that a frame work of activities be developed that are all encompassing to promote the use of organic fertilizer, not only for vegetable production but for other crops and efforts should be geared toward addressing most importantly marketing issues to motivate the producers to produce more by the government and all stakeholders charged with the responsibility of promoting organic agriculture.