Livestock Farmers’ Adoption of Forestry-Related Technologies in Southwest Nigeria.

Abstract

The study examined livestock farmers’ use of forestry-related technologies in Southwest Nigeria. Multistage sampling technique was used in the study. First, four States (Oyo, Ogun, Ondo and Edo) were randomly selected while Onigambari (Oyo), Olokemeji (Ogun), Ore (Ondo) and Sakpoba (Edo) were purposively selected. Fifty percent of the communities in the area were randomly selected while 10% of the farmers’ groups were also randomly selected in each of the communities amounting to 444 respondents. Percentages and Tables were used to describe the results while chi square was used to test the hypothesis.
Results reveal that 64.0% of the respondents were males, 94.4% respondents were married and 81.6% participated in group activities while a total of 66.9% respondents were between 30-59 years. Also, 87.1% respondents reared goats, 65.0% reared sheep while 45.6% reared chicken. Furthermore, 68.9% respondents were aware of home gardens, 87.2% - live fences, 70.3% - alley cropping, 83.3% - agrosilvopasture and 68.9%-woodlots development. Among the FRTs used by livestock farmers were home-gardens (87.8%), 87.5% respondents used live fences, 82.2% respondents used agrosilvopasture while 77.5% respondents used woodlots development. Chi-square analysis revealed significant relationship between livestock reared by respondents and their technology use (p<0.05). It was therefore recommended that more livestock farmer-friendly forestryrelated technologies should be developed to enhance their trade while awareness of the benefits of FRTs should be created in livestock farmers who were yet to adopt FRTs.

Keywords: Forestry-related technologies (FRTs), livestock farmers, adoption.