Assessment of faramers perception on relevance of improved rice technologies in Wushishi Local Government Area of Niger State Nigeria.

Abstract

The study examined perceived relevance of improved rice technologies by rice farmers in Wushishi Local Government Area of Niger State, Nigeria. The specific objectives were to describe the socio-economic characteristics of the rice farmers; assess level and perceived relevance of improved rice technologies; determine factors affecting adoption and constraints encountered by the rice farmers. Data were collected from 120 rice famers randomly selected using questionnaire complemented with an interview schedule. Descriptive statistics (frequency counts, percentages and means) and inferential statistics (Logit regression) as well as a 4-point Likert scale were used to analyze data collected. Results of the analysis revealed that the majority (83.3%) of the rice farmers were males, 85.0% were married, while 73.3% were young within the productive ages of 21-40 years. About 74.2% of the rich farmers were educated, 79.2% had experience in farming between 11-30 years. There was high level of awareness of Fadama development (π=2.39), Sawah technologies (X=2.35%), improved rice varieties like Faro 57 and 61 (X=2.68%), machineries such as reap harvester (X=2.95%) and planter (X=2.93%) as well as agro – chemicals like Gramazone, Weed off and 2.4D (X= 3.00). Most of the improved rice technologies was significantly influenced by cooperative membership (X=4.29,p 0.01), labor cost and household (p0.05), age and gender (p0.10). Major constraints encountered by the rice farmers were inadequate capital and transportation (100.0%), land degradation (77.5%) and shortage of planting material (65.0%) ranked 1st, 2nd and 3rd, respectively. It was therefore recommended that extension agencies should pay more attention to the socio-economic characteristics of rice famers that significantly influenced their adoption of improved rice technologies.