ADOPTION OF CASSAVA RECOMMENDED PRODUCTION PRACTICES AMONG FARMERS IN AKOKO- EDO LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF EDO STATE Abstract

The paper examine adoption of cassava recommended production practices in Akoko - Edo LGA of Edo State. Forty eight cassava farmers were randomly chosen collect Data that were analyzed using frequency distribution and t-test analysis. Result indicated that 62.01% of the Respondents were between 35-45Yrs of age while about 35% acquired tertiary education. Similarly, the result revealed that while there was no significant difference between awareness and adoption levels of cassava recommended production practices bush clearing ranked first both in terms of popularity and adoption. Furthermore, while most important reasons for farmers adoption were need to keep the farm land clean 84.41% and control of weed 78.12%, the major causes for non adoption were low capital fund (51.00%) and difficulties in bush clearing (37.40%).however, the most general constrains or challenges to adoption of cassava recommended production practices were identified as low capital (56.67), labour intensive (51.67%) and lack of land (50.00%) among others. Thus, the study recommends that adequate capital, substitution of labour with ma chineries and provision of land in the area. Keywords: Adoption, Recommended Practices, Cassava. INTRODUCTION Agriculture plays an important role in employment and relevance generation as well as in the provision of raw materials for industrial development. Nigerians population is rapidly increasing whereas the area of cultivable land as well as number of farm animals per capital is decreasing. Also, food production seems to be decreasing over the years. Hence, with rapid increase in population growth, the gap between food demand and supply continues to widen in Nigeria (Ijere 1992; Ugwoko et al., 2005). Cassava was introduced in Nigeria by the returnees slaves from America. I t performs so well in the country that Nigeria has become the world largest producer having overtaken Brazil and THAILAND (FAO 2006). The continued increased in output has raised the needs for cassava production practices to absolve the increases, produced diversified and high quality cassava products suitable for industrial use and export.

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From the discussions so far, adoption of cassava production practices is a pre-requisite for the attainment of food security objectives of the nation. However, a number of recommended practices such as timely weeding, herbicide application and planting stems inclined on ridges which will produce tuberous roots in the same direction to make harvesting easier have been introduced in an attempt to increase yield per hectare of cassava production

(IAR,2005).Although, Ofuoku et al.(2005) observed that, adoption of recommended production practices of crop was still a problem, but extension services were playing very important roles of assisting the rural farmers to adopt Agriculture innovation. Adoption a decision to continue full use of an innovation (Ekong, 2003).The decision or use a technology or practice by a farmer involves a series of stages which include awareness, interest, evaluation, trial and adoption of cassava recommended production practices among farmers in AKOKO-Edo local Government area of Edo state. It provides answers to questions such as what are the most popular recommended practices of cassava production in the area and to what extent is each recommended practice adopted? What are the reasons for adoption and what are the major constrains hindering adoption. The following are the specific objectives 1) To examine the social-economic characteristic of cassava farmers in the area. 2) To determine the awareness and adoption levels of cassava recommended production practices among farmers in the area. 3) To find out the reasons for farmers adoption and non-adoption of cassava recommended practices.
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4) To determine the constrains to adoption of cassava recommended production in the area METHODOLOGY The study was conducted in 2010 in AKOKO-Edo Local Government Area(LGA) of Edo State. The Local Government area was chosen for the study because of its high position in terms of cassava production. Earlier, a list of cassava recommended production practices introduced in the area was collected from Edo State Agricultural Development Programme a Survey of awareness and adoption levels of the identified practices was carried out among cassava farmers. Using simple random sampling technique, 12 cassava farmers were randomly selected from each of the four already purposively chosen villages to make a sample size of 48 respondent. The deliberate selection of the villages was based on their higher production capacities. The questionnaire collected data and were analyzed using percentage and frequency distribution in addition to independent students t-test technique which was employed to find out whether adoption was significantly different from awareness level.

The t- test model is described as: t

Where: X1 = Mean awareness level of practices X2 = Mean adoption level of practices SE = Standard error Hypothesis
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There is no significance difference between the mean awareness and adoption levels of the practices and was tested using the above model. Result and Discussion Socio economic Characteristics of the respondents Socio-economic variables play an important part in creating awareness(Mohammed et al.2005).The result in table 1 revealed that 86% of the respondents were male while the female representation was 33%.It also revealed that respondents within 21-30 and 31-40 years o age were represented by 63.04 and 32.80% respectively. Therefore it is important to conclude that the farmer could be motivated to adopt new technologies in anticipation of high returns due to active age level. Table 1 also revealed that only 23.86% did not attend school while the remaining acquired one form of education or the other with 51.86%up to tertiary level. The proportion with western education, especially tertiary, was encouraging and it might likely have positive impact on adoption. The result agrees with Bivan(1995) who reported that farmers educational attainment is paramount in his decision making. Farming experience can be linked with the age of farmers. As the age increases among the farmers, years of experience also increases. Table 1 shows that 71% of the respondents had been in cassava farming for less than 10 years, 33.80% and 14.60% had been in cassava farming for between 11-25years and more than 25 years respectively. With the above farming experience of the respondents, it is expected that the respondents will be able to make sound decisions regards resource allocation and management of their cassava farms. In the same manner, the result shows that 60.42% cultivated farm size ranging from 1.2-4.0hectares while 30% controlled 4.5 to 8.1 hectares. Lastly,

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responses of household size shows that 50% of the respondents had less than 5 people in their family,48% had 5-8 people while 8%had more than 8 people in their families.

Adoption of cassava recommended production practices Awareness of the availability of a particular innovation is the first element of adoption. Therefore, in this section, an assessment is made to determine the level of farmers awareness of cassava recommended production practices introduced into the study area their extents of adoption. Table 2 shows that fertilizer application, planting on ridges and plant spacing attracted the highest levels of awareness among the respondents with 76%, 73% and 69% respectively. Contrastingly, planting healthy stems cu t at mid point, planting time and weeding time were the least popular among the cassava production practices with 39%, 46% and 49% respectively. The table further discloses that the most popular recommended practices were also the most widely adopted in the area. Accordingly, fertilizer application, planting on ridges and plant spacing ranking first, second and third respectively while planting healthy stems cut at midpoint, planting time and weeding time ranked fourth, fifth and sixth respectively. As it was earlier pointed out that technology awareness is prerequisite condition for its adoption. However, it is important to mention at this point that awareness is only a necessary but not sufficient condition for adoption. Therefore, an independent t-test analysis was carried out to ascertain whether or not the number of adopters is significantly lower than the numbers of farmers that became aware of the existence of cassava recommended production practices. From table 2, the mean score of awareness was 21.0 while that of adoption was 13.8 and the table Page 5 of 8

further explains that this difference was not statistically significant. Hence, the null hypothesis which states there was no significant difference between the number of adopters and those that became aware of the existence of cassava recommended production practices is accepted. Finally, the study investigated into the general constraints hindering adoption of cassava recommended production practices in the area (Table3). Accordingly, inadequate capital, labour intensive and lack of land were considered the most serious problems or constraints to adoption by 83.33%, 63.75% and 56.67% of the total respondents respectively. This findings agrees with that of Ofuoku et al.(2005) who discovered inadequate capital as one of the major constraints to adoption of improved Soya bean varieties in Ndokwa west Ukwuani L.G.As of Delta state. Also, lack of improved technologies, transportation, and pest/diseases were the least constraints to adoption by 11.01, 40.00, 35.05 and 27.06 percents respectively.

Conclusion The study conducted in 2010, assessed the level of awareness and adoption of cassava recommended production practices in Akoko Edo LGA of Edo state. The collected data, from randomly chosen respondents were subjected to descriptive and t-test analysis .Results revealed that majority of the respondents were males, below 41 years of age acquired formal western education, had over six years of farming experience and had farm size of 1.1 to7.0ha. In addition, while recommended practices like fertilizer application, planting on ridges and plant spacing attracted the highest level of awareness and adoption. The study discovered no significant difference between awareness and adoption levels of cassava recommended production practices Page 6 of 8

in the area. Finally, the most serious constraints to adoption include low capital, labour intensive and lack of land. Thus, this study recommends that credit facilities and provision of land should be intensified. References Abdullahi, A. (2005). Realizing the potential of agriculture in Nigeria. Central Bank of Nigeria bulletin. 26(1):6770. Adeolu, B. A. (1990). The economics of cassava processing in Oyo North area of Oyo state , unpublished M.sc thesis, department of agricultural extension, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun state. Atala, T. K. (1984). The relationship of socioeconomic factors on agricultural innovation and utilization sources of innovation in two Nigerian villages. Journal of agricultural extension 2(1 and2):pp1-10. Atala, T. K., Arokoyo, T. and Omata, P. A. (1992). The impact of training and visit system of
extension on adoption of farm innovation and farm output in Kaduna state. Journal of agricultural extension. 2(1and2):pp1-10. Boma, J. T. (2004). Increasing cassava production in Nigeria. Paper presented at workshop organized by presidential committee on cassava initiative held at Nicon Hilton Hotel, Abuja, Nigeria on 16-17 June. Bivan, G. M. (1995). Economics of resource use in small scale agricultural production: A case of Akko L.G.A of Bauchi state. An unpublished M.sc thesis , agricultural economics and extension programme, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi, 68pp.

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