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Land is probably the most important resource needed by Man for his day-today existence. All human livelihoods and activities are directly or indirectly dependent on land at varying thresholds. But land connotes different meanings to the various user groups. For instance, builders, manufacturers, fishermen, miners, hunters and farmers have different specifications in their requirement for land for their production/services. Out of all user groups, agricultural production perhaps exhibits the highest form of sophistication in its use of land. Not only must agricultural land be capable of supplying crop-specific nutrients and water; soil temperature, structure, texture and p-h levels are inevitable requisites in the choice of land for agricultural production activities. Yet, land is a limited, somewhat scarce, resource with both artificial and natural access and usage barriers. These factors of specifications, multifarious uses of land and its limitedness have necessitated that various shades of competition for its utilization must ensue. Thus, competition for land between and within various user groups has been the bane of mankind since time immemorial. Non-agricultural user groups compete with agricultural usergroups on one hand, while there are various levels of intra-user group competition on the other. Indeed competition for land use is becoming keener and fiercer, largely due to increasing human and animal populations (Gefu and Kolawole, 2002). It has been illustrated that increasing population growth rate has continued to exert great pressure on available land resources with varying environmental and socioeconomic implications (

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Abstract

Persistent drop in quality of Nigerian cocoa exported to the international communities portends a grave danger to the economy of the country. This study investigates factors determining adoption of bean quality improvement practices by cocoa farmers in Cross River State, Nigeria. Using a two-stage random sampling technique to select 336 farmers from communities with high production, data were collected with a structured questionnaire and subjected to factor analysis and descriptive statistical procedures. The data revealed that majority of the respondents (66.1%) were male with mean age of 48 years, 78.6% were formally educated whereas 31.0% had a quarterly contact with extension agents. Most of the respondents (98.2%) had high perception on practices considered as being adequate for improving the quality of cocoa beans. There was a positive and significant relationship between perception on cocoa bean quality and adoption of bean quality improvement practices (r = 0.142 and p = 0.001) at one percent level of significance. Factor analysis showed that socioeconomic, production, technological and institutional factors with Eigenvalues of 3.312, 2.403, 1.862 and 1.055, respectively, accounted for the quality of cocoa beans. However, educational level of farmers (0.867), cost of inputs (−0.724), relative advantage of the practice (0.683) and contact with extension agents (0.703) exert greater influence on farmers’ capacity to produce quality cocoa beans. The identified variables should therefore be considered when disseminating improved practices to cocoa farmers for increased adoption.