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Effect of utilization of improved plantain production technologies among farmers in Abia State, Nigeria


J.C. Olojede
J.C.I. Ukoha

Abstract

The study focused on the factors that affect the utilization of improved plantain production technologies by farmers in Umuahia Agricultural Zone of Abia State, Nigeria. Data were collected with structured questionnaire and analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The results revealed that 55% of the respondents were males, with age of about 50 years, married (76.7%) and literate (95%) respectively. Most (95%) of the farmers were not members of any cooperative society and had their plantain plantation located in the field (56%). In terms of technology utilization, weeding (x̅ = 4.64) and pruning (x̅ =3.01) were highly utilized by the respondents respectively. Capital (x̅ = 4.49), poor access to technology (x̅ = 3.79), Labour intensive (x̅ =3.76), lack of information (x̅ = 3.71), transportation constraint (x̅ = 3.49) and complexity of technology (x̅ = 3.44), time constrain (x̅ = 3.42), Disease/pest attack (x̅ = 3.37), land availability (x̅ = 3 25) and lack of planting material (x̅ = 3.25) were found to be the major factors that affect utilization of the improved plantain production technologies in the study area. The inferential results shows that there was a significant effect of low market price, labour intensity and poor access to technologies on the level of utilization of the technologies. The study also shows that the utilization of improved plantain production technologies was very poor. The results therefore recommends that extension agents should step up efforts in agricultural information dissemination especially on improved plantain production technologies and labour efficient strategies to encourage its utilization by farmers.

Keywords: Utilization, Improved Plantain, Production, Technologies and Farmers


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print ISSN: 0300-368X