Extension Support for Cassava (Manihot esculenta) Production and Processing in Nigeria: Impact on Farm Practice Adoption

Abstract

Many factors have been found to affect farmers’ adoption of new technologies by different authors, which include farmers’ interaction with extension services and socio-economic characteristics of farmers. This study therefore, analyzed the impact of cassava farmers’ exposure to extension on the adoption of technology and the influence of some of their individual and farm characteristics on adoption. The data used was drawn from a survey carried out in 4 geopolitical zones in Nigeria known for cassava production which was conducted by International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in 2010. A total of 952 respondents were selected for the study and data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings show that most of the farmers are in their productive age (49years) and men constitute a greater percentage (76.8%) of those who are engaged in cassava production in the study areas. Also, the respondents had an average of 10 years of formal education and have been growing cassava for about 11-20 years while majority were small scale farmers having farm sizes ranging from 1-5 hectares with 11-20 years of farming experience. The most significant factors influencing adoption appear to be technology awareness, extension exposure, and age, which were positive and statistically significant at P<0.01 while household size, years of farming experience, and farm size were negative and statistically significant at P<0.01. Results indicate that farmers to farmers’ technological diffusion played the greatest role in dissemination of the technologies whereas interaction with extension agents were low. However, factors that hinder the interaction between extension agents and cassava farmers need to be considered for a future research.