Browsing by Author "Salihu, I. T."

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Adoption of Organic Farming practices among Rural maize farmers in Niger State, Nigeria
(Nigeria. Nigerian Journal of Rural Sociology, 18(2), 2019) Abdullahi, A.; Salihu, I. T.; Umar, I. S.; Hassan.S
The study investigated adoption of organic practices among rural maize farmers in Niger state, Nigeria, with specific objectives of describing socioeconomic characteristics of the farmers, identifying farmers’ sources of information on organic practices, examining adoption level of organic practices in maize production and identifying constraints limiting adoption of organic practices by the farmers. A multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select 222 maize farmers and data collected through structured questionnaire were analyzed using frequency counts, means and percentages. Results obtained shows that farmers in the study area were males (70.3%), mostly married (75.7%) with formal education (62.6%) at mean age and household size of 35.8 years and six (6) persons respectively. Also, farmers regularly acquire information about organic practices through extension agents (72.5%), relatives and neighbours (90.1%). Similarly, eight (8) out of the 15 practices identified were adopted. These include crop rotation (59.9%), mixed cropping (79.7%), mixed farming (73.0%), hoe/hand weeding (61.3%), slash and burn (54.1%), hoe/minimum tillage (66.2%), farm yard manure (53.2%) and crop residue incorporation (83.8%). Total adoption by the farmers was restricted by constraints such as; high costs of organic inputs (x=2.92), Difficulty in accessing loans for organic crop production (x=2.86) and low supply of manure (x=2.86). To this end, adoption level of organic practices among rural maize farmers in Niger State can be said to be moderate thus; it was recommended that change agents should enlighten farmers on various organic methods of weed, pest and disease control through the major sources of information in the area
Assessment of efficient utilization of production inputs among women rice farmers in Niger State, Nigeria
(Proceedings of the 52nd Annual Conference of the Agricultural Society of Nigeria, 2019) Yusuf, A.; Tsado, J. H.; Salihu, I. T.; Abdullahi, A.
Rural women have feature prominently in rice production enterprise, specifically; up to 70% of the rice produced in Africa comes from women (FAO, 2011). In Niger State, rice is traditionally regarded as a product of women. Women living in this area are having high knowledge about traditional farming methods of rice production. However, low productivity coupled with stiff competition posed by importers over the years has restrained the women farmers from earning significant returns from their investment and this has created rice production deficit. To minimize the effect of the rice production shortfalls on state demand, several efforts have been made by successive governments together with donor partners in a form of implemented projects to increase rice production. However, this effort is still ineffective due to limiting factors such as: inadequate institutional support (access to credit, research and extension), inappropriate production system, inadequate basic infrastructures, production risk and inefficiency on the part of the farmers. In light of these assertions, the challenging question to this review is that ‘can women rice farmers improved on their technical efficiency to reduce production risk and increase output’? Thus, this review seeks to assess the efficient utilization of production inputs among women rice farmers in Niger State, Nigeria.
Effect of Rural Youths migration on Maize production in Kontagora Local Government Area of Niger State, Nigeria
(Proceedings of the 1st International conference of agriculture and agricultural Technology held at Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger State, Nigeria, 2019) Abdullahi, A.; Baba, K.M.; Salihu, I. T.
The study assessed the effect of rural youths’ migration on maize production in Kontagora Local Government Area of Niger State, Nigeria. The specific objectives were to; describe the socio-economic characteristics of farmers; ascertain the causes of youths’ migration, determine the extent of youths’ migration, access the effect of youths’ migration on maize production and identify the problems associated with youths’ migration in the area. To achieve these objectives, 120 maize farmers were randomly selected through multi-stage sampling technique. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis. The result on socio-economic characteristics shows that majority (52.5%) of the respondents are still in their active age of between 21- 40 years with mean age of 39years. Equally, respondents were males (72.5%), married (77.5%) with Non formal education (40%). Only a few (18.3%) attained tertiary education. Similarly, majority (90%) had a household size of between 1 – 10 persons with average size of 6 persons per household. The average maize farming experience among the respondents was 17 years. The major causes of youths’ migration in the area includes: lack of employment opportunities (90%), furthering of education (77.5%), and lack of access to modern amenities (55%). The extent of Youths migration in the area is relatively moderate (45.8%) with averagely 31 youths leaving each village every year. The peak period of migration is usually during the off-season (50.8%). The result of the regression analysis shows Cob-Douglass as the lead equation. The result revealed that youths’ migration affect production negatively while labour, agro chemicals and fertilizer are positively significant. The problems of youths migration in the area include; loss of cultural values (75%), reduction in rural population (54.2%) and dull village life (47.5). To this end, youths’ migration limits maize production thus, government should provide functional schools and employment opportunities to engage rural youths
Perceived Benefits of Farmers’ Cooperative Societies on Rice Production in Selected Local Government Areas of Abuja, Nigeria
(Journal of Agricultural Economics and Extension Technology JAE2 S2, 2(1), 2019) Salihu, I. T.; Tsado, J. H.; Dauda, S. N.; Abdullahi, A.; M. Ibrahim; Ovaioza, S.
This study examined the perceived benefits of farmers’ cooperative societies to rice production in selected local government areas (LGAs) of Abuja, Nigeria. Using a structured questionnaire complimented with interview schedule, data were collected from 120 respondents selected from four cooperative societies in the study area through a multi-stage sampling technique. Data analysis was done using descriptive statistics and linear regression analysis. The result showed that the respondents mean age was 46years and about half (50.8%) had up to at least secondary education. Majority (83.4%) of the respondents had been involved in rice cultivation for the past 15years but only 5.8% had only been members of rice cooperative for more than 10 years. The respondents’ perceived benefits of cooperative society on rice production with higher mean scores include “cooperative gives advice on the quality of seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides, and cropping practices” (WM = 4.68), “helped in facilitating access to better market” (WM = 4. 57), “enlightening and educating members on new improved farm practices and access to farm inputs” (WM = 4.50). The linear regression analysis results revealed that the R2 value was 0.8445, meaning that over 84% of the variables included in the model accounted for the variation in the dependent variable. The educational level, marital status and farmers output were respectively, significant at 1% level of probability. On the hypothesis, there is a significant difference between the rice output produced by farmers before and after joining the cooperative societies (t-cal (5.211) > t-critical (1.00). Complicated administrative procedure, poor membership contribution, lack of trust among members, discriminating attitude of cooperative officials and inability to access loan/credit were the major problems faced by the cooperative members. Therefore, it was recommended that Agricultural stakeholders should encourage farmers to operate a functional cooperative that could facilitate credit and group dynamism.