Abstract:
This study examined the influence of selected socio-economic characteristics on awareness and adoption of agricultural innovations among women co-operators and non cooperators in Oju Local Government Area of Benue State. Also, the extent to which some socio-economic variables of the farmers affected the awareness and adoption of agricultural innovations was stressed. The socio-economic characteristics of the women studied were age, household size, farm income, agricultural credit, possession of durable goods, membership of co-operatives, non-farm income, level of formal education, farm size, length of membership, and contact with extension.. The sample size was one hundred and twenty respondents. The statistical methods employed in the study included frequency distribution, percentages, means, t-test, Pearson correlation and step-wise regression. The results of the study showed that there was no significant difference in age between the two groups, but a significant difference existed in the other socio-economic characteristics at 5 % level. The study showed that 55 % of the co-operators were aware of all the innovations while none of the non-cooperators fell in this category. A total of 67% co-operators and 2% of non-cooperators had adopted between 5-8 innovations. The correlation analysis showed a positive correlation between most of the variables. For co-operators, the variable that were positively significant to awareness included level of formal education, farm size, farm income, non-income, agricultural credit, membership of co-operative, possession of durable goods, contact with extension and length of co-operative membership. The step-wise regression showed that all the variables affected awareness by 46%. While for non-members, the three variables which were significantly related to awareness included household size, farm income and non-farm income. The step-wise regression showed that these variables accounted for 20% of the variable in awareness. For co-operators, the findings showed that levels of formal education, farm size, farm income, non-farm, possession of durable goods, contact with extension, household size, membership of co-operative, agricultural credit were positively significantly related to adoption of innovations. The variables accounted for 49% of the variance. For non-cooperators, age, household size, farm size, farm income and non-farm-income, were significantly related to adoption. The step-wise regression analysis showed that the variables accounted for 28% of the variance in adoption. This study showed that the adoption of innovations by co-operators and non cooperators was hampered by lack of credit facilities, inadequate processing and storage facilities, mismanagement, lack of ownership of land, inadequate knowledge of cooperative education. This study supports the need for the government to strengthen and provide the womens’ co-operative societies with the necessary logistic support, well managed cooperative production credit and encourage co-operative formation and contact between farmers and extension agents.
ADOPTION OF AGRICULTURAL INNOVATIONS AMONG MEMBERS AND NON-MEMBERS OF WOMEN CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETIES IN OJU LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF BENUE STATE
