DETERMINANTS OF ADOPTION AND USE-INTENSITY OF SOIL AND WATER CONSERVATION PRACTICES AMONG SMALLHOLDER FARMERS IN NIGERIA

Smallholder farmers are faced with myriads of soil and water related issues in production, which makes them vulnerable to land degradation and low productivity. Land resource degradation remains a major threat to food security leading to persistent poverty among the agrarian and urban populace. Therefore, there is need for appropriate interventions such as improved soil and ground water conservation (SWC) practice. This study examined the dynamics influencing the use and extent of use of SWC practices among smallholder farmers in Nigeria with particular reference to Osun State. The sampling technique used involved random selection in many stages to select the representative sample of 240 respondents. Data collected through primary source included: farmers’ socio-economic attributes, farm level characteristics as well as the use of SWC practices in the study area. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, binary probit and negative binomial regression models. Findings from the count of SWC practices revealed that on the average, most farmers use at least one SWC practice. The results also indicated that fairly aged farmers were the set of people in the study area who adopted between 2 to 3 different SWC practices. Estimation of binary probit and its marginal effects at the means (MEMs) revealed that age of the farmers (p<0.01), gender (p<0.01), years of formal education (p<0.01) and farm size under cultivation (p<0.1) were significant determinants of SWC practices adoption. Similarly, the count model estimates revealed that age of the farmer (p<0.01), gender (p<0.01) and the size of farmland put under cultivation (p<0.05) significantly determined the log counts of SWC practices adopted by smallholder farmers in the study area. However, the test of over-dispersion parameter showed that the model fits well. Therefore, there is need for massive campaign by the institutional establishments saddled with agricultural development policies on the need for SWC farming practices, so that the resource-poor farmers can have remunerative livelihoods in Nigeria.

Keywords
Adoption; binary probit; conservation; negative binomial model; smallholders; Nigeria