UTILIZATION OF SOIL FERTILITY MANAGEMENT PRACTICES AMONG ARABLE CROP FARMERS IN OSUN STATE, NIGERIA

This study examined the utilization of soil fertility management practices (SFMPs) among arable crop farmers in Osun state, Nigeria. Multistage sampling was used to select 160 arable crop farmers. Data were collected using a well-structured interview schedule and analyzed using descriptive statistics and Person Product Moment Correlation (PPMC). The results revealed that the majority of the farmers are married males, mostly aged 51 years old, with an average farm size of 2.6ha, and mainly growing maize (96.9%), cassava (91.9%) and yam (68.1%). The respondents use cultural methods, synthetic fertilizers and organic manure in that order as SFMPs. SFMPs are used at the following levels: cultural methods: ridging across the slope with a weighted mean score (WMS) of 2.81, rotational cropping (WMS = 2.66) and mulching (WMS = 2.47); synthetic fertilizers: NPK (WMS = 1.75) and urea (WMS = 1.27); organic manure: poultry manure (WMS = 0.77) and animal dung (WMS = 0.76). The major source of information for SFMPs was radio (95.6%). PPMC analysis showed that age (r = 0.20*; p = 0.01) and farm size (r = 0.16*; p = 0.04) are significantly related to the utilisation of SFMPs. In conclusion, the respondents were small scale farmers who mostly utilize cultural methods of SFMPs and are mainly influenced by crop type as a function of age and farm size.