Awareness and farmers’ level of involvement in organic farming across two vegetation zones of Ekiti State, Nigeria

Abstract

There is an increasing awareness of the latent danger in the use of pesticides in crop production. There is a clamour for organic production by consumers and researchers, thus, this study investigated the awareness and farmers’ level of involvement in organic farming across two vegetation zones of Ekiti State, Nigeria, with specific objectives of assessing socio-economic characteristics of the farmers; investigating crops grown by the farmers; examining farmers’ level of awareness of organic farming; investigating constraints associated with organic farming as well as assessing the farmers’ level of involvement in organic farming in the study area. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 160 farmers in the study area. The data collected were analyzed with the aids of descriptive tools such as frequency counts, percentage and mean. Results of analysis showed that the farmers were mostly male, married with mean family size of 6.7 and mean income of #35,361.70. Crops grown by the farmers include: maize, yam, cassava, sweet potato, plantain/banana, vegetables, pepper, okra,
tomato and tree crops such as cocoa, citrus and kola nut. The awareness of organic farming was high among the farmers, while the farmers’ level of involvement in organic farming was low. The implication is that sustainable agricultural production may not be achieved, if nothing is done to boost organic farming in the study area. The study recommends that: The farmers should be provided with enlightenment programmes, motivations and adequate trainings on various organic farming activities.