ACCESSIBILITY OF ADOPTERS OF IMPROVED RICE FARMERS TO PRODUCTION RESOURCES IN AGRICULTURAL ZONE I OF NIGER STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Level of access and affordability of production resources is a limiting factor for widespread adoption of improved seed varieties. It is on this bases, the study attempts to assess the level of accessibility of adopters of improved rice farmers to production resources in agricultural zone 1of Niger State, Nigeria. Multistage random sampling procedure was used to select a total of 135 respondents for the study based on the proportion of population of the respondents in the selected cells. Interview schedule was used to elicit information from the respondents. The responses were analyzed using frequency counts, percentage and mean scores. The result revealed that majority of the respondents have high level of farming experience (82.2%), low level of education with only 34.1% having up to secondary level of education and only 10.4% acquired credit from banks. The production resources with the least level of accessibility by the respondents in the study area were fertilizer (𝑋̅=2.40), tarpaulin (𝑋̅=1.89), credit (𝑋̅=1.81), irrigation water pump engine (𝑋̅=1.60) and tractor (𝑋̅=1.56), The major motivating factors influencing adoption of improved rice varieties include attributes such as early maturity (𝑋̅=4.79), more superior in terms of consumer preference (𝑋̅=4.44), higher yield (𝑋̅=4.41), and high market value (𝑋̅=4.06). In conclusion, fertilizer, credit, mechanization, tarpaulin and irrigation water pump were the least production resources accessed by the adopters of improved rice varieties in the study area. Hence it is important for development agencies and policy formulators to put into consideration degree of accessibility of potential adopters to the above mentioned production resources in the design of their programmes, this will influence adoption of improved technology in a sustainable manner and improvement of the livelihood of rural households. On the credit facilities, the farmers should form cooperatives so as to meet up with present requirements of the Central Bank of Nigeria (Anchor borrower’s programme) to acquire credit at lower interest rates to increase their input purchasing power.