Soil Conservation Practices among Vegetable Farmers in Etche Local Government Area, Rivers State, Nigeria

Abstract

Soil conservation requires that organic matter be returned to the soil on a continual basis. The study examined soil conservation practices among vegetable farmers in Etche Local Government Area of Rivers State, Nigeria with the specific aim to: describe the socioeconomic characteristics of the vegetable famers in the area: identify the types of vegetables grown; ascertain the types of soil conservation practices available and adopted for the production of vegetables, examine the benefits of soil conservation practices to vegetable farmer and identify the constraints to the use of soil conservation practices in vegetable production in the study area. Data were collected with the use of questionnaire and 106 respondents were selected from six communities using the purposive sampling method. The data were presented and analysed using frequency, percentage, mean score and correlation analysis. The study revealed that majority (52.8%) were female, were married, (53.8%) and 47.2% had SSCE. The mean age was 31.8 years; household size mean was 4.9 while the mean years of farming experience was 7 years. The type of vegetables grown were; Pepper (87.7%) Okra (84.9% ), Maize (84.0%), fluted pumpkin ( 73.6%) Cucumber (73.6%), Water melon (72.6%), Garden egg (65.1%), Water leaf (59.4%) among others. The types of soil conservation practices available were; shifting cultivation (82.1%), multi-cropping (72.6%), manure application (66.0%) and crop rotation (56.6%). Benefits of soil conservation practices in were; improved soil structure (70.8%), increased productivity (64.2%) and protect soil from erosion and nutrient loss ( 58.5%). Major constraints to the use of soil conservation practices in the study area were; lack of information (71.0%), lack of incentives (57.5%), inadequate soil conservation skills (50.0%) and lack of technical knowhow (37.7%). The result from the regression analysis showed that gender (-0.024 ) , house hold size (-0.135) and maritals