DETERMINANTS OF UTILISATION OF ORGANIC FARMING PRACTICES AMONG CROP FARMERS IN SOUTHWESTERN NIGERIA

Abstract

Organic agriculture is being promoted due to its environmental and human friendliness. Efforts to promote Organic Farming Practices (OFP) is yielding positive results, though its utilisation is still low. Previous studies on OFP have focused on extension model and compliance with organic agriculture standards. However, information on factors which predispose farmers to the use of OFP is limited. Therefore, factors that predispose crop farmers to utilisation of OFP in southwestern Nigeria were investigated. Four-stage sampling procedure was adopted. Oyo, Osun and Ogun states were purposively selected due to preponderance of organic corporate farmers. Using simple random sampling, 10% of 83 Local Government Areas (LGA) in the selected states and 17% of 92 wards in the selected LGA were sampled resulting in 8 LGA and 16 wards. Finally, a list of 737 crop farmers was generated from all the wards and 40% of crop farmers were sampled proportionate to size resulting in 295 crop farmers. Interview schedule was used to elicit information on respondents’ personal and enterprise characteristics, sources of information, knowledge of OFP, OFP in use, utilisation of OFP, attitude towards OFP, benefits derived and constraints in utilising OFP. Indices of knowledge (low, 7.00-16.77; high, 16.78-25.00), OFP utilisation level (low, 20-40; high, 41-63), attitude (unfaourable, 46-76; favourable, 77-110) were generated. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Chi-square, Pearson Product Moment Correlation, ANOVA and multiple regression at α0.05. Respondents’ age, farming experience, annual income and farm size were 43.45±10.95 years, 20.44±6.94 years, ₦250,072.00±₦338,081.00 and 0.50±0.66 hectares, respectively. Most of the respondents were male (96.3%) while 94.3% of the respondents had formal education.Most of the farmers (78.6%) practised mixed cropping, while most grown crops were cassava (73.2%), maize (65.1%) and vegetables (56.3%). Major sources of information on OFP were farmers’ association (126.4), print media (118.0) and radio (109.3), while 55.3% of the respondents had high knowledge of OFP. The OFP in use were use of wood ash (1.87±0.40), lemon grass extract (1.63±0.5), organic herbicides (1.34±0.61) and neem extract (1.35±0.60). The OFP level was low for 60.3% of the farmers, while 42.0% had favourable attitude towards OFP. Benefits derived from OFP by farmers included poison-free crop produce (1.65±0.48), increased crop shelf life (1.50±0.51) and increase in soil organic content (1.34±0.47). Respondents were constrained by unavailability of market for organic crop produce (1.59±0.71); inadequate capital (1.43±0.89); inadequate labour (1.40±0.62); curing of fresh manure (1.06±0.73); pests and diseases control problem (0.93±0.79). Respondents’ age (r=0.334); household size (r=0.188); farm size (r=-0.402); income (r=0.422); cosmopoliteness (2=32.81) and membership of association (2=161.45) related significantly to utilisation of OFP. Farmers’ favourable attitude (=0.438), high cosmopolitness (=0.427), being old (=0.399), large household size (=0.107), high knowledge (=0.000) and membership of association (=0.075) increased utilisation of OFP, while being highly constrained (= -0.351) decreased it. Increased knowledge, age, household size, cosmopolitness, favourable attitude towards organic farming practices and constraints were predictors of utilisation of organic farming practices in southwestern Nigeria.