Adoption of Maize Production Technologies in Ishielu Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, Nigeria
1UGWUMBA, C. O. A. AND 2ISIBOR, A. C.
1Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension, Faculty of Agriculture,Anambra State University, Anambra State, Nigeria.
2Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension. Faculty of Agriculture, Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka, Anambra State.
E-mail: chinweann@yahoo.com
ABSTRACT
The study examined the adoption of maize production technologies in Ishielu local government of Ebonyi State Nigeria with the arm of ascertaining the levels of adoption of maize production technologies and to determine the socio-economic factors that influenced level of adoption of the technologies. Primary data were collected using a purposive and simple random sampling from 50 maize farmers. Descriptive statistics, likert scale and logistic regression were used to analyze the data. Results showed that majority of the farmers were within the age bracket of 21–40 (64%) and dominated by male (56.5%) and majorities are married (56%). About (76.7%) had formal education; highest level of adoption (80%) was achieved with the use of hybrid maize varieties. Logistic regression result shows that gender, age, marital status, educational status, household size, farm size, membership of social group and annual income were statistically significant at 57 level of probability. High cost of the technologies was identified as the major constraints to adoption. It is recommended that subsidies should be provided on fertilizers and agrochemicals to reduce cost of the technologies to boost production.