Type | Journal Article - Journal of Agricultural Science and Technology |
Title | Food Legume Crops in Nigeria: Potentials for Soil Fertility and Food Security |
Author(s) | |
Volume | 1 |
Publication (Day/Month/Year) | 2011 |
Page numbers | 354-367 |
URL | http://www.davidpublishing.com/davidpublishing/Upfile/8/22/2011/2011082207840382.pdf |
Abstract | The study was undertaken to assess the inorganic fertilizer production and consumption, export and import trends in Nigeria, assess the effect of food legume technology on farmers’output, income, household inventories and inorganic fertilizer usage. Multi-stage sampling technique procedure was adopted in obtaining 300 respondents. Primary and secondary data were used. Simple descriptive statistics, t-test and correlation were used to analyse the data. Both the trend analysis result and test of mean differences showed a wide gap. The result revealed a significant increase in the yields of maize, millet, cocoyam, sweet potato, okro, tomato and overall aggregate crop yield of farmers after the adoption of the food legume technology (t = 2.78, 2.23, 3.70, 3.30, 2.20, 3.5 and 2.297; P = 0.05), hence improves food security. Similarly, the result revealed significant positive change in terms of farmers’ownership of house, increase in the number of rooms, improvement in water source, possession of radio, television/tape recorders and cell phone. Major constraints to production as revealed by the study include pests and diseases, low soil fertility, inadequate finance, storage problem and poor market for products. The study recommends adequate and regular supply of food legume production inputs to farmers and intensive control of pests and diseases. |
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