EFFECT OF FARM MECHANIZATION ON MAIZE FARMERS' OUTPUT IN OYO STATE NIGERIA

Abstract

There is supply-demand gap in maize production in Nigeria which has culminated into scarcity and hike in prices of maize and its products which need urgent increased production. This gap could be bridged through mechanization of maize production. Thus, the study analyzed the effect of mechanization on maize farmer's output in Oyo Sate, Nigeria. A multistage sampling procedure was used to select a sample size of 138 maize farmers, comprising of 108 users of farm mechanization and 30 non-users farmers. Primary data was used to elicit information from the maize farmers through the administration of a well-structured interview schedule. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics tools like frequency, percentages, mean, standard deviation and Weighted Mean Score (WMS) while T-test were used as the inferential tool to test the hypothesis. The result revealed that tractor was the most utilized farm machines and ranked first with weighted mean score (WMS) of 2.97.Additionally, Paired T-test analysis revealed a significant difference in output per hectare of users and non-users of farm mechanization in maize production (t = 7.728) with a mean difference of 587.39kg at 1% level of significance. This confirms a wide gap in output per hectare between users and non-users benefiting users. The study concludes that despite the high cost of using farm mechanization, it is still beneficial to the users as they earned more income than the non-users. It was therefore recommended that farmers should organize themselves into cooperative society so as to pull
resources together in order to purchase farm machines.