Awareness and Adoption of Good Agricultural Practices among Smallholder Farmers in relation to the Adopted Villages programme: The Case Study of Northern Nigeria

Abstract

This study assesses smallholder level of awareness and uptake of good agricultural practices (GAPs) that were initiated by the National Agricultural Extension and Research Liaison Services (NAERLS) in Nigeria; a programme to enhance the agricultural productivity and income of participants. This study engaged with 120 smallholder farmers and their extension officer and data were collected via structured face-to-face and livelihood questionnaires and then analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings show that 82% of participants were aware of the specific GAPs covered by the NAERLS programme. Despite this, the majority of respondents were not practicing these. Participants identified numerous challenges to GAPs implementation, including; unreliable and inadequate rainfall; lack of farm inputs; high cost of farm inputs; lack of technical know-how; lack of irrigation facilities and high illiteracy. The study also shows that the level of awareness of GAPs among farmers in the study areas has a statistically significant impact on the productivity and livelihoods of smallholders. These initial results strongly suggest that the Nigerian government should provide funds to support NAERLS in order to intensify its intervention efforts. In the same vein, NGOs, rural developers, policy makers and government at all levels should be encouraged to provide farm inputs and credit facilities to farming communities to offset the high costs of inputs.

Effect of National Agricultural Extension and Research Liaison Services Adopted Village Activities on Livelihood of Women in Zaria, Kaduna State, Nigeria

“…As presented in Table 3, the activity most participated by the respondents in the past one year was training on Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), as indicated by the mean output of 1.4 which is higher than the cut-off mark of 1.0. In their findings, Sennuga et al (2020) reported the majority of the farmers (adopted village participants) in Northern Nigeria considered extension officers' from NAERLS, as their main source of information on a range of GAPs. Followed by linkage with input agencies (𝑥̅ =1.2), that is, women were linked to input agencies to obtain inputs at cheaper rates and invariably reducing their cost of production.…”

Gendered Awareness of Pig and Poultry Farmers on the Potential of Black Soldier Fly (Hermetia illucens) Farming in Kenya

“…A high level of formal education would mean that most farmers are expected to be cognizant of a new technology within a relatively shorter period. Sennuga et al, [36] suggested an essential link between education level, personal empowerment to escape poverty, possession of appropriate information, and making informed choices. Farmers with higher levels of education tend to be more efficient in production.…”

Exploring adoption factors of innovations in arracacha crop: A case study in Cajamarca, Colombia

“…This category includes practices such as activity scheduling, work registration, income/expense registration, and technical assistance during cropping, which are practices related to good agricultural practices (GAP). Different studies show the importance of their use for the increase of innovations in rural farms (Sennuga et al, 2020;Tudela et al, 2021). In relation to the importance of this category, some studies evidence that farmers do not use administrative tools or accounting records that can support decision-making on the farm (Tudela et al, 2021).…”