 หัวเรื่อง:ไม่มีชื่อไทย (ชื่ออังกฤษ : Socio-economic Factors Influencing the Output of Small-Scale Maize Farmers in Abuja, Nigeria) ผู้เขียน: Julius Ajah, Job N. Nmadu สื่อสิ่งพิมพ์:pdf AbstractNigeria is one of the developing countries facing shortages of cereal crops like maize. Based on this, research on the socio-economic factors influencing small-scale maize farmers? output was conducted in Abuja. A multi-stage sampling technique and semi-structured questionnaire were used for data collection. A total of 160 maize farmers were interviewed in four agricultural zones (40 from each zone). Data were analyzed using multiple regression analysis and descriptive statistics. The results showed that the land area cultivated, land rent, quantity of fertilizer applied, years of farming experience and household size were the major socioeconomic factors that significantly (p < .05) influenced maize output. The R2 value of 0.31 (adjusted R2 = 0.26) indicated that the variables accounted for 31 percent of the variation in maize output. The mean outputs of maize per hectare and per farmer were 316.73 kg and 614.56 kg, respectively. Socio-economic results showed that the mean age of the farmers was 39 years with a substantial percentage (68.12%) of them having, at most, primary school education. Based on the results, it was recommended that farmers in the study area should be informed through extension services of the socio-economic factors that influence maize output so that the farmers can consider these factors in their production decision making process. |
หัวเรื่อง:ไม่มีชื่อไทย (ชื่ออังกฤษ : Small-Scale Maize Farmers? Access to Farm Inputs in Abuja, Nigeria) ผู้เขียน:Julius Ajah, Job N. Nmadu สื่อสิ่งพิมพ์:pdf AbstractThe study evaluated small-scale maize farmers? access to farm inputs in Abuja, Nigeria because one of the most limiting factors in the development of agriculture in Nigeria is inadequate access to farm inputs. To cover the study area, a multi-stage sampling technique was adopted while structured questionnaires were used for data collection. A total of 160 maize farmers were interviewed in four agricultural zones (40 farmers from each zone). Data were analysed using mixed factorial analysis of variance; mean separation was carried out at the 5 percent probability level. The results showed that maize farmers? access to the different types of farm input differed significantly (p < .05). Of all the farm inputs, land was the most accessible with a mean access value of 3.03 while the least accessible farm inputs were tractor services (0.64) and loans (0.58). Furthermore, the location of the farmers in Abuja had a significant (p < .05) interaction effect on farmers? access to farm inputs. On the contrary, there were no significant differences (p > .05) in the mean responses of the maize farmers? in the four different agricultural zones with respect to access to farm inputs. Generally, the grand mean access value (1.73) indicated that the maize farmers had poor access to all the farm inputs. Based on the grand mean access value, it was concluded that access to the farm inputs was poor; hence it was recommended that Input and Farm Information Service Centres should be established under a publicprivate partnership to increase farmers? access to inputs, especially the most limiting inputs. |