Assessment of Agro-Chemicals Utilization by Small-Scale Farmers in Guyuk, Adamawa State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study assessed the utilization of Agro-chemicals among small scale farmers in Guyuk Local Government Area of Adamawa State. Ninety five (95) respondents were selected using multi-stage, purposive and random sampling techniques. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The result shows the distribution of respondents according to their age, 12.63% are less than 20 years, 13.68% are within the age of 21 to 30 years, 14.738% 31 to 40, years, 16.84% 41 to 50 years, 21.05% ranging between 51-60 years while 21.0% of them are 60 year and above. It shows that the majority of the farmers fall within the age of 51 to 60 years. The gender distribution of the farmers shows that 68.42% of the respondents were male while 31.78% are female. 48.4% of the respondents have 6-10 members of family in a household. Based on educational level of the respondents, majority of the respondents (36.84%) had Tertiary education while 31.58% had secondary school education. Majority of the respondents (35.8%) had farming experience of over 30 years. According to the distribution of farm size, majority of the respondent (52.6%) had less than 1 hectare (<1ha), 27.4% had between 1 and 5 hectares and 20.0% between 6 and 10 hectares. Based on sources of agro-chemicals, the result revealed that the majority of the respondents (65.3%) got their agro-chemicals in the open market while 18.9% through extension workers and 15.8% through non-governmental organization. The distribution of respondents according to the most utilized agro-chemicals. Majority (42.1%) maintained that they make use of fertilizer and 36.8% uses pesticides than other forms of agro-chemicals. Distribution of respondents according to whether agro-chemicals are harmful or not, majority of the respondents (83.2%) responded that agro chemicals are harmful and 16.8% pointed out that agro-chemicals are not harmful. Majority 51.58% of the respondents maintained that agro-chemicals did not affect their farm income, 48.42% pointed out that Agro-chemicals had positive impact on their farm income. Based on the constraints to adoption of agro-chemicals, most of the respondents pointed out that the major constraint to adoption of agro-chemicals is inadequate fund. Majority of the farmers are poor. On the other hand, some of the farmers pointed out that it is difficult to apply agro-chemicals and they do not have the skill and equipment to use on their farms. Agro-chemicals application requires safety measures like hand globes, and protective clothing to avoid contact with the body, this discourages farmers from applying agro-chemical on their farms. Most agro-chemicals possess offensive odour which may affect adoption, by and large some farmers maintained that they are allergic and hence do not like the odour and cannot use it on their farms. 18.95% of the respondents indicated that they use to get between N200, 000-N250, 000 and above due to utilization of agro-chemicals on their farms. The result of regression shows a coefficient of multiple determinations (R 2) value of 0.036 which indicates that 3.6% of the variation in output was accounted for by the variation in explanatory variable used in the model. The remaining 96.4% may be attributed to error. The coefficient of herbicide (X 1) was positive and significant (P < 0.01). The positive coefficient suggests that a percentage increase in the variable would result to increased output level. The result of X 2 at 10 DF, 6 DF and 12 DF (P<0.05) level of significance =1.812, 1.943 and 1.782. The calculated X 2 values of 16.094, 22.479 and 22.288 are greater than critical (Table) values, this revealed that there was significance association between agro-chemicals utilization and some selected socioeconomic variables: Age, Level of education and income while the X 2 at 2 DF at 0.05 level of significance =1.697. The calculated value (0.122) is less than the critical (Table) value, so the result indicates that there was no significant association between Agro-chemicals utilization and Gender.