Environmentally Friendly Agricultural Practices amongst Farmers in Ogun and Oyo States, Southwestern Nigeria

Abstract

A good agro-environmental practice is necessary due to the recent resource constraint, poor soil fertility and nutrient depletion, degradation, low yield and poor resource extraction for short term gain. This study examined the preference of farmers for environmental friendly agricultural practices among farmers in Ogun and Oyo States of southwestern Nigeria using multistage sampling technique, structured questionnaire to collect data and analyzed using descriptive statistics, likert scale and random effect logit regression model. The results revealed that the use of crop rotation was ranked first which was followed by the use of cover cropping. Those that rarely use cover cropping and cover cropping constitute 11.76 and 50.0% respectively. The use of organic manure and mulching are not common among the farmers in the study area. The result of random parameter logit revealed that the Chi-square value (1326.76) was significant at 1%. This is associated with the log ratio (LR) that assessed whether the attributes of environmental friendly practices and socioeconomic factors of farmers provide a significant amount of information to explain farmers’ decision to embrace environmental friendly practices. The coefficient (β = 0.0004, p<0.01) of bid is significantly positive. The estimated coefficient for pesticide reduction at 20, 30 and 40% were positive, underlining that farmers prefer to reduce the use of pesticide. The estimated coefficient of crop rotation with legume (β = 0.8522; p<0.01) was also positive and significant to farmers’ decision to embrace environmental agricultural practices. The study recommends agricultural subsidy programme that will cover the use of eco-friendly agro-practice among farmers.