Adoption of proven soil management practices by rural women in Imo state, Nigeria

Abstract

The adoption of proven soil management practices by rural women in Imo State was assessed. The objectives of the study included to determine the soil management practices adopted by the women and to analyse the relationship between the adoption and the rural women's socio-economic characteristics. One hypothesis guided the study: The socio-economic variables of the rural women do not have significant relationship with their adoption of the proven soil management practices. Data for the study were generated with the aid of structured questionnaire, interview schedule and transect walk across the farm sites of 344 randomly sampled rural women from the three agricultural zones of the state. These were analysed using simple percentage counts and multiple regression technique using the four functional models at 0.05 level of significance. Results indicated varied rates of adoption of nine soil management practices with erosion control measures ranking 1st, mulching 2nd and application of manure 3rd. The socio-economic variables of age, education, family size, extension contact, income and credit opportunity were significantly related with the adoption of proven soil management practices. It was however recommended that rural women's socio-economic characteristics should be considered alongside the bio –physical factors in technologies design and dissemination. Also, extension education campaign, using multi-media should be mounted to sensitize and ensure adoption of proven soil management practices.

Keywords: Soil management; agriculture; erosion control; rural women; Nigeria

International Journal of Natural and Applied Sciences Vol. 2 (3) 2006: pp. 262-267