Adoption of agricultural innovations among rice farmers in federal capital territory, Nigeria

Abstract

The study accessed rice farmers’ adoption of innovations in the Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria. The FCT has six area council; Abaji, kuje, Municipal, Kwali, Bwari and Gwagwalada. The study area covers a land mass of 8,000 kilometer (km2). It is bordered by four states Kaduna, Nassarawa, Kogi and Niger, it lies between latitude 80 251 and 90 251 North of the equator and longitudes 60 451 and 70 451 east of the Greenwich meridian. Abuja is located in the middle belt of Nigeria, its size is equivalent to 0.8% of Nigeria. There exist expansive fertile marshy plains good for rice production. The multistage sampling method was used to sample a total of 120 rice farmer using structured questionnaires as instruments in Gwagwalada council, 20 farm cells were selected, 6 farmers were then randomly selected from each cell. The data were analyzed using simple descriptive statistics. Most of the farmers (87.5%) were male. 6-11 persons (33.3%) per house-hold constituted the largest household size of the total farmers sampled. Majority of the farmers (26.76%) earned only between N21, 000 and N60, 000 annually. Adoption rate of some agricultural innovation in rice were rated as Fertilizer (60.2%), herbicides (60.2%), improved seed (30.8%), use of agricultural extension services (3.3%) use of farm machinery (2.1%) and silos (1.1%). Constraints faced by farmers in the study area were inadequate capital (80%), inadequate extension services (85.8%) poor market price (30.8%), high cost of agro chemicals (98.3%), inadequate storage and processing facilities (92.5%), No access to loans and credits (95.0%). The research recommended public private partnership (PPP) to sensitize and educate farmers to enable them benefit from the new innovations and technology that abound in rice farming.