Published in Scientific Papers. Series "Management, Economic Engineering in Agriculture and rural development", Vol. 18 ISSUE 1
Written by Emeka OSUJI, Uchechi ANYANWU, Melissa OKWARA, Akunna TIM-ASHAMA
The use of variant agricultural practices has marred the productivity of the farmers to an immeasurable extent. Hence the study evaluated the implications of agricultural practices on land productivity of the farming households in Imo State, Nigeria. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 120 crop farmers from the three agricultural zones of the State. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and ordinary least squares multiple regression technique. Results showed that farmers have a mean household size of 7 persons, 19 years farming experience with a net income of N84, 000 per cropping season. Result further showed farmers completed their post primary education and cultivated less than 2.0 hectares per unit area of land. The use of agricultural practices such as crop rotation, continuous cropping, bush burning, mixed cropping and mulching are significant at various levels and therefore have strong implications on land productivity of the farmers. Farmers are faced with series of constraints’ such as capital, technical known-how, land tenure difficulties, etc. which limits land productivity and adoption capacity of the farmers. Hence farmers are encouraged to drop agricultural practices that are concomitant to land productivity and embrace improved ones that are technically appropriate, socially acceptable, environmentally friendly and economically suitable.
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