Farmers' Preference for Soil and Water Conservation Practices in Nigeria: Analytic Hierarchic Process Approach

  • Seyi Olalekan Olawuyi University of Fort Hare, Eastern Cape Province
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22610/jebs.v10i4(J).2408
Keywords: Soil and water conservation, Preference, MCDM-AHP, Logit, Nigeria

Abstract

Enhancing agricultural production through sustainable soil/land and water conservation practices are vital to the sustenance of the human race as entrenched in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 2, 12 and 15 respectively. Smallholder farmers are faced with myriads of soil and water-related issues in production which make them vulnerable to land degradation and low productivity. This calls for policies to enhance sustainable food production; hence, the need for this study which highlighted the influencing dynamics governing the preference and use of SWC practices alternatives in Nigeria with particular reference to Osun State. Multi-stage sampling technique was adopted in this study to select the representative sample of 240 respondents. Data collected through primary source include information on selected farmers’ socioeconomic attributes, institutional and farm level characteristics as well as the SWC practices prevalent in the study area. The SWC practices highlighted in this study include: Soil Management/Amendment Practices (SAP), Agronomic Practices (AP) and Cultivation Practices (CP). The data collected were analyzed with crosstabulation analysis, AHP technique and the logit regression model. The results from AHP revealed that Agronomic Practices (AP) is the most preferred and used SWC practice option in the study area while marginal effects of the logit regression revealed that age, gender, years of formal education, membership of local level institutions, access to extension services and frequency of extension visit as well as farmers’ perception on the impact of extension visit are significant influencing dynamics governing the rural farmers’ preference and use of SWC practices alternatives in the study area. Hence, concerted efforts should be geared towards developing pro-farmers policies in line with these influencing dynamics.  

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References

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Published
2018-09-14
How to Cite
Olawuyi, S. O. (2018). Farmers’ Preference for Soil and Water Conservation Practices in Nigeria: Analytic Hierarchic Process Approach. Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, 10(4(J), 68-80. https://doi.org/10.22610/jebs.v10i4(J).2408
Issue
Vol 10 No 4(J) (2018)
Section
Research Paper

Copyright (c) 2018 Seyi Olalekan Olawuyi

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