Assessment of Adoption of Agrochemicals by Cucumber Farmers in Selected Local Government Areas in Kaduna State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study analyzed farmers’ behavior towards adoption level of agro-chemicals for productivity of cucumber crop in Kaduna State, Nigeria. The socio-economic characteristics of cucumber farmers, level of adoption and satisfaction derived from the use of agrochemical in cucumber production and the impact of adoption of agrochemicals in the production of cucumber crops in the study area were examined. The sample size was forty-seven randomly sampled from Kaduna North and Kaduna South local government areas. The study adopted the use of questionnaire and interview schedule to obtain data from the respondents. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the study’s objectives while inferential statistics (Logistic regression and Binomial test) were used to analyze the hypotheses of the study. Results revealed that the average age, household size, farm size and farm experience were 44.56 year, 8.13 persons, 2.13 acre and 8.38 years respectively. About 79% of the respondents ranked above average in their level of adoption of agrochemical usage in cucumber production Farmers satisfaction on effects of agrochemicals on cucumber crop is significantly high, since the majority (81.85%) fell under this category A difference in farm income of N65,957.45 was obtained and this was in favor of after respondent adoption of agrochemicals by the farmers. Variables like age (b = -11472.612; t = 1.739), educational status (b = 11065.852; t = 1.866), household size (b = 22120.708; t = 2.533), farm size (b = 1216.851; t = 0.131) and farm experience (-8402.064; t = 0.040) were found to be significant in influencing level of adoption of agrochemicals in cucumber production. Based on findings of the study, it could be recommended that efforts should be made to orientate and re-orientate the older farmers who did not seem to be adopting the use of agrochemicals so that they can begin to change their mind-set towards its use.