Farmers’ Organisations and Its Contribution to the Adoption of Soil Conservation Practices: A Case Study of Smallholder Farmers in Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

As part of the efforts to reduce land degradation and improve agricultural productivity, farmers in the study area were introduced to various soil conservation practices through farmers’ organisations. This study was however, conducted to determine the effect of farmers’ organisation on soil conservation practices adopted in the study area. Data collected, through a multistage sampling procedure, were analysed with the aid of descriptive statistics and double hurdle regression model. Findings revealed that three conservation practices were adopted in the study area namely; cover cropping (14%), vegetative fallow (35%) and mulching (46%) while 5% did not adopt any practice at all. Findings also revealed significant difference in some socio-economic characteristics among the categories of adopters in the study area such as age of the household head (P < 0.05), off-farm income (P < 0.01) and farm size (P < 0.01). Double hurdle model results revealed in the first hurdle that, while, gender, age, off-farm income, valley location, and extension contact significantly influenced the adoption of cover cropping practice, age, offfarm income, farm size, and extension contact significantly influenced adoption of vegetative fallow system practice. The adoption of mulching practice is significantly influenced by education, farming experience, farmers’ organization and household size. In the second hurdle, while, gender, age, off-farm income, valley location, and extension contact significantly influenced the adoption of cover cropping practice, gender, education, farm size, and farming experience significantly influenced the adoption of vegetative fallow system practice. The adoption of mulching practice is significantly influenced by gender, education, and farmers’ organization. The study concluded that farmers’ organization is one of the key factors influencing the three soil conservation practices (cover cropping, vegetative fallow system and mulching). Others were offfarm income, extension contact, farm size, and years of education. In line with the findings of the study, the study recommends that formation and strengthen of a farmers’ organisation for increased uptake of soil conservation practices should be encouraged. In addition, effective strategies, programmes and institutional structures that would enhance education of farmers, frequency of extension contact and off-farm income should be put in place.