Impact of adoption of improved oil palm technologies on smallholder farmers' livelihood in South-South, Nigeria
Date
2023-02
Authors
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Publisher
Federal University of Technology, Owerri
Abstract
The study assessed the “Impact of adoption of improved oil palm technologies on smallholder farmers‟ livelihood in south-south, Nigeria.” The objectives were to:- describe farmers socio-economic characteristics, sources of information, identify farmers awareness, livelihood activities, level of adoption of the oil palm technologies; assess impact of smallholder farmers‟ adoption; and identify constraints to technologies adoption. The Null hypotheses tested were:- relationship between farmers socio-economic characteristics and adoption of oil palm technologies; farmers perceived impact on livelihood and adoption of technologies; socio-economic characteristics and farmers perceived impact of adoption; and whether there was difference in farmers perceived impact among adopters in three selected states. A multistage random sampling method was used to select a total of 322 oil palm farmers from three states of Edo, Bayelsa and Akwa Ibom in south-south, Nigeria. Structured questionnaire, interview schedule and focus group discussion were used for data collection. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics of frequency counts, percentages, means, rank order; Ordinary least square regression analysis; Pearson product moment correlation and Analysis of variance. The results showed that the oil palm farmers were dominated by males (79.5%). While 77.3% of the farmers were married, 57% had household size of 5-8 persons; while 31.1% of the farmers have 11-15 years farming experience. The age distribution of farmers were within age bracket of 41-50 years; about 53.1% of the farmers belong to farmers‟ social organization, and only 20% of the farmers had no formal education. The mean monthly income of the farmers was N30,800.00. The result also revealed the following characteristics of oil palm farms, where 62.1% of the farmers had oil palm plantation farm size of 1-3ha; 55.3% of the farmers operated on sole planted oil palm farms; while 45.0% of the farmers had oil palm plantation aged between 11-20 years old, 51.6% of the farmers operated on self owned oil palm plantation; and about 46.6% of them had their oil palm plantation farms located between 1-2km distance from home. Sources of information on oil palm technologies used by greater proportion farmers were friend / neighbours, extension agents and agricultural development programs (ADPs) ranked 1st, 2nd and 3rd respectively. The farmers had very high awareness of the oil palm technologies and hence high level of Adoption of improved oil palm technologies recorded among the farmers. The study revealed among the oil palm livelihood activities that marketing of palm produce = 3.65,transport of palm produce =3.58, harvesting of palm fruits =3.58 and palm oil processing = 3 were rated as very important activities by larger proportion of the farmers. Impact of farmers‟ adoption of improved oil palm technologies perceived at household and farm levels on farmers‟ social life (before and after), and at community level, had positive impact on the smallholder farmers livelihood at household and farm levels; impact on farmers and where perceived farmers‟ impact indicated increases in farm income, increase farm yields, improved food security, oil palm plantation expansion; improvement on the farmers social life of the material benefits and well-being. The study developed and described in perspective the “Impact Pathway” framework for the adoption of improved oil palm technologies generated by Nigerian Institute for Oil palm Research (NIFOR), to demonstrate how oil palm technologies adoption could create impact in the lives of farmers/non-farmers in the study area. Major constraints affecting farmers‟ adoption of oil palm technologies were lack of capital/fund, lack or no access to land, high cost of inputs, high cost of labour and insecurity to life and properties. Regression analysis result showed that co-efficient determination of farmers‟ characteristics t-ratios of:- sex= 0.042, marital status=1.570, household size =3.52,and farm size = 0.170 had significant positive relationship on adoption of oil palm technologies while t-ratios of:- age= -2.880, educational level = -3.74 and farming experience = - 0.24 had negative relationship on adoption. Pearson product moment correlation analysis showed that significant and positive relationship existed between farmers‟ perceived impact of improved oil palm technologies on farmers‟ livelihood and adoption of oil palm technologies. Regression analysis results had p-values of :- age= 0.004, household size<0.001, farming experience = 0.008 and education level <0.001) had significant positive relationship between socio-economic and farmers perceived of impact at household level. ANOVA result showed that no significant difference existed between farmers perceived impact of adoption on farmers livelihood among farmers‟ adopters across the three selected states. Based on results of the study, recommendations were made:- provision of farm inputs subsidies to farmers; review of land use policy to make more land available for large scale oil palm expansion; among other recommendations.
Description
This thesis is for the award of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD.) Degree in Agricultural Extension
Keywords
Impact, adoption, oil palm, technologies, livelihood, South-South, Nigeria, Department of Agricultural Economics
Citation
Gere, S. O. (2023). Impact of adoption of improved oil palm technologies on smallholder farmers' livelihood in South-South, Nigeria [Unpublished Doctoral Thesis]. Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Nigeria