Factors influencing participation of cassava farmers in Survival Farming Intervention Programme (SFIP) in Kogi State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study assessed the factors influencing participation of cassava farmers in Survival Farming Intervention Programme (SFIP) in Kogi State, Nigeria. A multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select 180 respondents comprising of cassava grower in the study area. Primary data were collected with the aid of questionnaire complemented with interview schedule. Both descriptive (frequency count, percentages and mean) and inferential (Logit regression) statistics were used to analyze the data collected. Results revealed that the majority (72.8%) of the respondents were within the age range of 36 – 55 years, while 94.5% the respondents were married. The majority (68.4%) of the respondents acquired formal education, while 31.6% had no formal education. In term of access to SFIP activities, the majority (61.7%) of the respondents were aware of SFIP, 65.6% were visited by extension agents under the programme, 73.3% were member of cooperative society and 58.3% of the respondents had access to credit as introduced under the programme. Major constraint identified by the respondents was poor market for produce (83.9%) ranked 1st among other constraints. Logit regression analysis shows that with Pseudo-R2 of 0.67969, 68% of the variation in the participation in SFIP was explained by the independent variables in the model. Age (3.2621), labour (2.8822), education (2.5341), land tenure (-2.5995), awareness (5.4484), extension contact (2.6206) and planting material (2.8012) were significant at 1% probability level, while marital status (2.4660) and gender (-2.3744) were significant at 5% probability level and they statistically influences participation in SFIP. In conclusion, most of the respondents were aware of SFIP and benefited from its activities. It was therefore recommended that rural markets should be linked to the urban market to attract good value for cassava products thereby enhancing living standard of the farmers especially those in the rural areas.