Authors: Edeoghon, C.O.; Ajayi, M. T.; Ugboya, T.O.
Abstract
The study examined the awareness and use of sustainable agricultural practices by arable crop farmers in Ikpoba Okha Local Government Area of Edo State, Nigeria. With the use of structured questionnaire and interview schedule, a total of 96 arable crop farmers were surveyed for the study.
Findings show that majority (64.4%) of the respondents were males while 68.9% of them either had primary or secondary education qualification and 18.9% had no formal education. All the respondents were aware of mixed cropping, 95.6% were aware of cover cropping and organic manure (87.8%). Only very few of the respondents were aware of practices like alley cropping, the use of green manure, crop rotation, and minimum tillage system which led to their non-usage of these practices. Information on sustainable practices was mostly obtained trom fellow farmers. The major
barriers to the use of sustainable agricultural practices were lack of government support, lack of funds and the cost of the sustainable practices. Findings also show that there was a significant association between farming experience and respondents’ use of sustainable agricultural practices
(χ 2 = 12.46: p<0.05) and a significant association between respondents’ awareness and use of sustainable agricultural practices (χ 2= 18.34: p<0.05). The introductions of adequate awareness and training programmes for farmers on sustainable agricultural practices were recommended.