Membership in association, gender and adoption of land-enhancing technologies among arable farmers in Ogun state, Nigeria

Abstract

Abstract. This study investigated the effect of membership in farmers’ association on adoption rate of land-enhancing technologies in Ogun State, Nigeria by gender. Specifically, it describes the socio-economic characteristics of the farmers by gender, identifies land-enhancing technologies adopted by farmers in the study area, determines the adoption rates of the technologies by gender, and determines the membership in farmers’ association on the adoption and intensity of use of land-enhancing technologies by gender. Multistage sampling procedure was used to select 120 respondents for the study. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics and the Cragg’s (double-hurdle) model. The results of the descriptive statistics, which are expressed by gender, reveal that the sampled population were majorly comprised of males (58%), than females (42%). The level of association membership was 54% for females and 35.29% for males, and only 33.82% of the respondents had contact with extension agents. The results also show that 17.65% of males and 10% of females did not adopt any technology. The results from the Cragg’s double hurdle model show that extension contact significantly influenced the adoption of most of the technologies. It had a positive relationship with the adoption of all the technologies across both genders, except for organic manure whose adoption was negatively influenced. It is therefore recommended that relevant governments and stakeholders improve extension services, as well as consider farming associations as means of getting across to female famers in order to improve their adoption levels and productivity.