Farmer perception of the relevance of livestock production technologies in Oyo state, Nigeria

About 40% of the respondents had low perception of livestock production technologies while 51% of them were aware of these technologies.  Farmers obtained all information through friends and family members. Their inability to have contact with extension agents affected their perception and awareness of the technologies.

Keywords: Agricultural extension, perception, awareness, technology

Introduction

Agricultural research is the most important single determinant of agricultural development in sub-Saharan Africa. This is because no nation has been known to achieve any meaningful progress in agricultural growth without huge investment in agricultural research. In Nigeria, the food agriculture and natural resources sector occupies a central position in the economic structure. Consequently, its development has obvious implication for overall development (Ekpere 1995). Agriculture contributes 34% to the gross domestic product (GDP), 40% of exports and 70% of employment. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN 1990) noted that if Nigeria is to meet its food requirement and generate financial resources needed for its overall development programme, it must improve its agricultural performance. Technology development through research is the main stay of agricultural development and if it is removed the agricultural system would collapse. New technologies have to be constantly developed if farmers are to continue farming. 

The last twenty years have witnessed heavy investment in agricultural research and development of new technologies in Nigeria. The national and international research centres have reported significant yield increases in many crops. Insect pest and disease damage to animals and crops have been brought under control. However, farmers remain unaware and have low perception of the skill to take full advantage of these technologies (Ekpere 1995). An ineffective extension service has been partly blamed for this deficiency as well as lack of support services and other factors that make it unprofitable for farmers to accept and implement new technologies (International Institute of Tropical Agriculture 1993, unpublished). Agricultural research in Nigeria has suffered a significant set back on the basis of how research results are perceived by the farmers. This has made it imperative that farmer perception of research results be considered. 

In order to revitalize the agricultural research system in Nigeria and make it relevant to the final users, the National Agricultural Research Project (NARP) was launched in 1992 by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources (FMANR 1997) with the assistance of the World Bank. The government was determined to increase the agricultural production beyond the peak attained and ensure that it was technology-oriented.  

Technologies are effective only when they are used. No matter how well new technologies work on research stations, if farmers do not have access to them, their development would have been in vain (Bremer et al 1989). The agricultural research system must therefore conceptualise an effective mechanism and capacity to not only implement the transfer of results but also to measure the farmers’ perception of these technologies. 

The interest shown by government in agricultural research has been tremendous. This is demonstrated by the large number of agricultural research institutes in the country (Lucas et al 1997). There are also more than 20 Universities, which offer studies in agriculture and forestry. These universities are all involved in both basic and applied research. However, the full potentials of agricultural research in Nigeria has not been attained. The desire for sustainable food production remains a mirage (Lucas et al 1997). Farmers have different perceptions as to the appropriateness of research results. In most cases, researchers test their findings under strictly controlled environment with total disregard for the farmer ways of farming.

Scientists’ understanding of farmer perception about technology is often clouded by misleading metaphor by which the process of technology development and delivery are described. Farmers tend to be seen as passive recipients and users of technology developed by other people. At best, it is acknowledged that some feedback on farmer reaction to a new technology is desirable in order to refine that technology but this is likely to be regarded as a need for mere fine turning. These metaphors are misleading because farmers are not passive consumers but active problem solvers who in fact develop for themselves most of the technologies they use (Kaimowitz and Merril-Sands 1989). For many hundreds of years, before today’s National Agricultural Research systems were set up, farmers undertook their own research and integrated technology from different sources and continued to adapt it on their farms. This implies that technology used by farmers is a complex product which undergoes constant changes (Kaimowitz and Merril-Sands 1989). However, as technology is developed and used, the production system changes. A new constraint becomes most limiting for which a new technology must be developed.  

The main objective of the study was to analyze the perception of farmers of the relevance of technologies generated by research institutes in Oyo State. In order to meet this objective, the following specific objectives were formulated.

• To identify the demographic characteristics of the farmers

• To determine the level of perception of farmers to the relevance of agricultural technologies.

• To ascertain the level of awareness of agricultural technologies by farmers 

Methodology 

The area of study is Oyo State is covered by Oyo-State Agricultural Development Programme (ADP) with four zones namely; Shaki, Ogbomoso, Oyo and Ibadan/Ibarapa. The farmers who were studied were organised into groups. The formation of the groups was necessitated by limited number of extension agents available after withdrawal of funds by the World Bank, which had been used to finance the ADP. 

A multistage random sampling technique was used to select the studied farmers. Ogbomoso and Oyo zones were purposively selected for they were regarded as the food basket of Oyo state. The membership strength of the farmers was compiled (1190) and ten percent of the farmers were randomly selected (119). Data were obtained using an interview schedule for the sampled farmers and structured questionnaires. The data collected from the questionnaires were analyzed using the statistical tools such as frequency counts, percentages, Chi-Square and Pearson Product Moment Correlation. 

Results and discussion

Males (80%) were more prominent in farming activities than females (Table 1). The lower proportion of female farmers could be due to the fact that women preferred to trade and their inability to get their own farmland. The high percentage of male farmers may be due to their access to farmland and their position as head of family. These results agree with the work of Oguntola (1998) who concluded that farming is a male-dominated profession.  

The distribution of age (Table 1) revealed that only 15% of the farmers were aged less than 30 years. This may be adduced to the fact that young people preferred white collar jobs, which caused a significant rural-urban migration. Presumably, the higher proportion of old people could be explained by the fact that they are custodians of tradition, which agrees with the work of Ekong (1988). He concluded that the population of old people is the most predominant in farming communities in Nigeria. 

The population was predominantly (75%) Christian, with the remainder being Muslims. This scenario was probably brought by the churches that introduced schools and hospitals to the people. Young people may have been enticed by the various Christian organisations like Boys Brigade and Girls Guides which are designed to improve their physical and mental alertness as well as their social standing. The high percentage (84%) of the farmers that were married may be as a result of the belief of the local people that married people are more responsible. In addition, most people probably married in order to raise large families that would supply labour on the farm. However, only 3% of the farmers were widowed. 

About 66% of the respondents had no formal education.  This could reflect the low levels of literacy of people in the area. Approximately 5% of the farmers had secondary education. This could be due to financial constraints and the fact that the population of farmers that are young was very low.  Farm sizes were below 1.6 ha for 57% of the respondents. This may be attributed to the fact that most of the farmers were relatively old, who faced financial constraints and had inadequate inputs. Furthermore, the large amount of labour required for operating a large farm could also serve as a constraint. The tenural system of land ownership, fragmentation of farmland and human activities such as the building of roads and industries may force people to have small farm size.  About 12% of the respondents cultivated more than 4 ha each.  These may be farmers that had access to farmland because they were indigenous to the area or they were leaders of families. Some of them could secure loans and credit facilities, with which they could maintain large farm sizes. Apart from this, they would have cash to buy a large farm. It is also possible that these were young people who could actively increase their farm size. 

It was found that 37% of the respondents belonged to a group of a cooperative. This could be due to the belief of the people that cooperative society and social groups were significant factors in farmer livelihood. This is because the group they belong to easily influences most of the farmers. Olujide (2000) also argued that farming pattern is related to the social group a farmer belonged to.  Another reason could be that most farmers had no access to extension agents, implying that the group they belonged to served as the ready source of information for them. In this study, almost 13% of the respondents did not belong to any social group. Probably, these farmers did not have sufficient finance or were ignorant of the importance of social groups and cooperative societies. 

Of the study population, 35% did not hold any position in their various societies while 40% belonged to one committee or another. The large proportion of those that were in a committee could be due to their exposure to extension agents and their participation as contact farmers. This appears to support the view held by Olujide (2000) that before any innovation is introduced to farmers, their leaders' support should be sought so as to give legitimization to the agent to introduce the innovation.   Approximately 70% of the study population were paying their dues. The high percentage of those that paid their dues was attributed to the fact that there was eagerness on the part of the members to see that their group moved forward. It also reflected the strong desire of the farmers to have access to new innovation. Another possible reason was the enlightenment of members of the group by their leaders. Those who did not pay their dues were probably facing financial constraints or were dissatisfied with the group, old, illiterate or simply refused for personal reasons. More than a third of the respondents (35%) paid their dues often. This scenario could be explained by the fact that those paying always were getting constant benefit from the group and  were financially buoyant. Other reasons included the belief that frequency of payment definitely affected the group and their exposure to innovation. Those that paid promptly probably were well-educated or had contact with the outside world. 

The percentage awareness of  technologies was very high except for some no responses and 3.4% who were not aware of simple housing design for rabbit rearing. This may be due to the fact that the farmers saw these technologies as a means of enhancing their dwindling fortunes and increasing their sources of protein. Use of local material for mange treatment and modified raised platform floor for sheep and goats have highest proportion of continued usage 51 and 50% of the households, respectively. Mange was very predominant in this area and a cheaper method of treating was required. 

People will adopt a technology that will sustain their means of livelihood. This seems to be corroborated by Ndaghu (2000) who concluded that farm families engaged in strategies designed to alleviate poverty. 

Family members and friends, radio and television were the only sources of information to the farmers in the study area (Table 3). This scenario could be related to the inter-personal relationships and contact between the farmers and family members. Radio and television were popular may be because of the availability of electricity in the town and the prevalence of transistor radios, which each of the farmers take to their farms. The importance of newspapers and extension agents as sources of information was lower (35 and 53%, respectively). Newspapers may not be readily available to these people and were also regarded as a luxury. Extension agents were too few to be able to effectively serve the farming community. This problem was compounded by the fact that some farmers did not belong to cooperative societies. The low proportion of extension agents observed in the study was not consistent with the observations of Williams (1981). This author found that extension agents were the tools used mostly by farmers to acquire information on improved farm practices. 

Table 4 shows the significance of farmers’ basic characteristics to the relevance of the technologies. Gender, age, and marital status were not important determinants of farmers’ perception of the technologies. This means that these characteristics did not influence the perception of the farmers to the relevance of these technologies. All farmers require the technologies on their farms irrespective of their sex and age. On the other hand, religion, level of education, farm size, and social group, all significantly influenced the perception of farmers on the relevance of these technologies. 

This observation can be explained by the fact that religion predisposes the farmers to education, more information and easy contact with people.  The more educated one is, the more receptive he/she is of new ideas. His/her scope also widens. It is also possible that, the more education one has, the better his/her perception of the relevance of technologies would be.  People with large farm sizes would want to accept and make use of technologies that will make the smooth running of their farms possible. Such farmers may want to reduce drudgery associated with manual labour. As a result, the bigger the farm size the better the perception of the relevance of technologies. 

If someone is in social group he/she is easily influenced by the group. His/her livelihood system is enhanced and their farming pattern is improved.  The relationship between awareness and perception of technologies was tested with the PPMC statistics. The result shows there is no significant relationship between the awareness of livestock technologies and the perception of its relevance by farmers (r = 0.28, p < 0.05).  However, a significant relationship was recorded between the source of information and perception (r = 0.62, p < 0.05). This means that the lower amount of information received from the source the lower the farmer perception and vice versa. 

Conclusion 

• It was observed that the perception of farmers of the relevance of technologies was not only affected by the basic characteristics of the farmers but also by the source of awareness. The study has revealed that most farmers were aware of the use of technologies and their perception was relatively high, however their perception was constrained by socio-cultural factors. In order to alleviate these constraints the following recommendations should be considered: 

• Government and research institutes should endeavour to embark on enlightenment campaign on the usefulness of these technologies, that is, the source of information to farmers should be increased.

• Pre-test of these technologies should be carried out in the areas where they are to be introduced. This will help the research institutes to relate the relevance of their technologies to the target area.

• The research institutes should endeavour to send out agents from time to time to get the view of the farmers on technologies being promoted.

•  The needs of farmers should be assessed before any technologies are introduced to them as this would enable the researchers to know better the farmer needs.

• Livestock, crops and equipment that are traditionally used by farmers should be made the basis of new technologies, as this would entice the farmers to use what they are already familiar with.

References 

Bremer S R,  Fox  J,  Poats S and Graig L 1989  Gender variable in Agricultural Research Journal pp 3-4 

Central Bank of Nigeria 1990 Statistical Bulletin Vol 1 Nos 1 and 2 pp 16-17 

Ekong E  E 1998 Rural Sociology. Jumak publishers, Ibadan Nigeria.p 24 

Ekpere J A 1995 ‘Transfer of Agricultural Research Results and technology” in : Towards  Strengthening the Nigerian Agricultural Research System. Shuab, Badedipe, N.O Odegbaro,O.A and Aliyu, A (eds) 

FMANR 1997 Nigeria: National Agricultural Strategy Plan 1996 – 2010 Abuja pp 69-108 

Kaimowitz D K and Merril-Sands C M 1989 The technology triangle. The Hague. International Service  for National Agricultural Research. Pp 1-25 

Lucas E O, Adeleye I O A, Yahaya M K and Olaniyan A B 1997 Basic Principle in Agriculture.  Agbo Areo Publishers Ibadan, Nigeria.pp 2-4 

Ndaghu AA 2000 Poverty alleviating strategies of farm families; a case study of Michika L.G.A. of Adamawa State Seminar Paper pp. 2-4. 

Olujide M G 2000 Nongovernmental Organisations Community Development Services in Ikorodu Local Government Area of Lagos State. A paper presented at the 26^th Annual Conference of the Rural Sociological Association of Nigeria at ObafemiAwolowo University Ile-Ife, September 

Oguntola S I 1998 Female-oriented Technologies in Agricultural research Institutes in Oyo state. Unpublised B.Sc thesis in the Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Development, University of Ibadan, Nigeria                                           

Williams S K T 1981 Instruction and Organisation of Agricultural Extension Services in Nigeria. An invited paper presented at the workshop on utilization of Agricultural Research Results in Nigeria held at the Institute of Strategic Studies, Kuru, Nigeria. July pp 25-36