Cost benefit analysis of soil conservation practices: Evidence from Nigeria

Abstract

The study examined profitability analysis of soil conservation practices and its determinants by arable crop farmers in Delta North Agricultural Zone, Delta State. A multistage selection procedure was applied for this study. The instrument of data collection was well structured questionnaire. The sample size used for analysis was 332 respondents. The analytical tools used are: descriptive statistics, cost and return analysis and multiple regression analysis. The respondents mean age was 41years. On the educational level, greater part of the respondents are educated. The mean household size is 7 persons. The average farm size is 1.69ha. The mean farming experience was 13 years. The mean income was N 97,342. The finding revealed that the major soil conservation practices adopted by the respondents are irrigation, planting of different crop, planting of trees, use of fertilizer and crop rotation. The total revenue (TR) was found to be N8802732 , gross margin was N 5155822. The operating ratio was 0.41 while return on every naira was N2.41k implying soil conservation practices are profitable. The major challenges of farmers are inaccessibility to information, limited income, high cost of improved varieties, inadequate storage facilities, high cost of labour and unavailability of credit facilities. The regression showed that education, farm size, farming experience, income, labour supply, access to credit, farmers perception and awareness contributed positively to profitability of soil conservation practices. It is recommended that the government should create awareness on soil conservation practices.