Abstract
It has been observed that low adoption of agricultural technologies has crippled the productivity level and increased the poverty level of farmers/processors in Nigeria. The study specifically investigated the welfare impact of adoption of improved oil palm processing technologies in South Western Nigeria using poverty as an indicator. Data were collected through a multistage sampling technique from 360 sampled oil palm processors in the study area. Primary data were used for the study with the aid of a well-structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, Foster, Greer and Thorbecke (FGT) weighted poverty index and Cragg’s (double-hurdle) model was used to analyzed the data collected. The results of the study showed that based on the poverty line created, majority of the adopters of the improved oil palm processing technologies were above the poverty lines which mean they were non-poor. This showed that the adoption of improved oil palm processing technologies in the study area had impacted the welfare of the adopters in South Western Nigeria. Analysis of the determinants of the adoption and intensity of adoption of the improved oil palm processing technologies using cragg’s double-hurdle model showed that in the first hurdle (probit model), variables such as access to credit, farm ownership status, volume of oil palm fruits processed and extension contacts were found to significantly influenced the decision to adopt the improved oil palm processing technologies while in the second hurdle (truncated regression), variables such as age, processor’s perception and training was found to significantly influenced the intensity of use of the improved oil palm processing technologies. Implementation of policies that will increase the adoption of the improved oil palm processing technologies which will subsequently leads to improved welfare of the oil palm processors should be pursued by the government, agencies and stakeholders in Nigeria.
Highlights
Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) originated in the tropical rain forest of West Africa and is one of the most vital economic oil tree crops in Nigeria
The mean age of the adopters and non-adopters of the improved oil palm processing technologies were 49.32 (±16.73) and 47.18(±12.42) respectively with the pooled mean age of 47.36(±14.92). This implies that processors of oil palm in South Western, Nigeria were in their active age and are expected to be productive (Akinwehinmi and Yesufu, 2019; Olapade-Ogunwole et al, 2019)
The mean years of formal education were 12.21(±6.45) and 12.04(±5.15) for the adopters and nonadopters respectively. This shows that oil palm processors in the region were literate, they can read and write. This agrees with that processors of oil palm in Nigeria had a form of education (OlapadeOgunwole et al, 2019)
Summary
Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) originated in the tropical rain forest of West Africa and is one of the most vital economic oil tree crops in Nigeria. The economic importance of palm oil is huge as it serves both food and non-food purposes. It is the most important vegetable oil in the world mainly because it is the cheapest vegetable oil and leads other vegetable oils in terms of yield per unit area, trade and consumption (Yusuf et al, 2014, Mba et al, 2015). Orewa further showed that traditional methods in Nigeria, on the average, yield about 4% crude palm oil of fresh fruit bunch (FFB) compared to 18% - 23% achieved by industrial and intermediate scale technologies (Orewa, 2009)
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