Utilization of improved cassava production technologies by urban farmers in Imo State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study centred on the utilization of improved cassava production technologies by urban farmers in Imo state with a view to making policy recommendations. The objectives of the study were to identify the cassava production technologies utilized by the farmers and to analyse the relationship between the utilization and the urban farmers' socio-economic characteristics. Data were collected from 240 randomly sampled urban cassava farmers from the three agricultural zones of the state with the aid of structured questionnaire and interview schedule. These were analysed with frequency table, simple percentage and Ordinary Least Square Multiple Regression Analysis at 0.05 level of significance. The results show the utilization of herbicide/manual weeding (87 %), improved cassava varieties (58.3%), fertilizer (50%), timely planting (41.6%), etc by the farmers. The utilization of the technologies was determined by age, education, farming experience, household size, information sources and farmland ownership status of the farmers. It was however recommended that extension education campaign be intensified on the technologies using multi-media. These therefore should guide development practitioners in their design of intervention strategies. Government should also include urban farming in its urban poverty alleviation program with back-up design that allows urban farmers access to undeveloped land areas. Keywords : cassava, urban farming, production technologies, Nigeria International Journal of Natural and Applied Sciences Vol. 1(1) 2005: 10-16