Abstract
Conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources is essential to the sustainable development of agricultural production and rural in production zones in Nigeria. This study, therefore investigated the utilisation of recently released superior rice germplasm among smallholder farmers in Nigeria. A post- crop varietal release impact assessment was conducted in Oyo, Ekiti, Kwara and Ebonyi states of Nigeria in 2019. Structured questionnaires were administered to 120 farmers using a simple random sampling technique. Result from the study revealed that ricefarmers are mainly males, middle aged, married, with some form of education. They have medium (3-6 household member) household size with longer years of farming experiences. Inadequate capital and limited credit facilities, plant disease, birds and insect infestation are the major constraints encountered by the farmers. Result of the correlation analysis shows that there was no significant relationship between sources of planting materials and frequently planted varieties (r = 0.100 and p = 0.786). However, there was significant relationship between production constraints and frequently planted varieties (r = 0.010 and p = 0.648). It is recommended that more channels of credit facilities should be provided to rice farmers by governments at various levels to improve their level productivity.
 Keywords: Rice, adoption, genetic resources, utilisation, smallholder farmers
Highlights
Nigeria is endowed with abundant plant genetic resources with substantial potentials for agricultural production
The results showed that majority (88.3%) of the respondents were male while the remaining 11.7% were female. of rice farmers in the study area?
Less than half (38.3%) of the respondents got their planting seeds from the previously harvested materials and 28.3% of the respondents got Findings in Table 1 showed that 35.0% of the their planting seeds from agro-input dealers, while only 6.7% of the respondents got their planting seeds from respondents were between the ages of 31years and 40years, while 5.8% of the respondents were above 60 years of age
Summary
Nigeria is endowed with abundant plant genetic resources with substantial potentials for agricultural production. It ranks first among the leading agricultural producers in the West Africa sub-region. Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is a cereal belonging to the family Gramineae, a large monocotyledonous family of some 600 genera and around 10,000 species. It is one of the leading food crops in the world and the most consumed staple food in Nigeria (Hawksworth, 1985). Rice is best grown in lands with moderately high water holding-capacity or swampy lands. Rice is a major source of carbohydrates, minerals, and vitamins which provides energy in the human body
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
