Utilization of Improved Cassava Production Technologies among Farmers in Obudu Local Government Area, Cross River State, Nigeria

The study is on the utilization of improved cassava production technologies among farmers in Obudu Local Government Area of Cross River State, Nigeria. The specific objectives of the study were to; ascertain the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents, identify the types of improved cassava production technologies available to farmers in the area, determine the extent of utilization of improved cassava production technologies in the study area, the benefits derived from utilizing improved cassava production technologies and factors affecting the utilization. Data were collected through questionnaire from the 5 communities using random sampling technique. A total of 149 respondents were selected for the study. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data while inferential statistics such as logistic regression model was used to test the hypothesis. The result indicated that most of the respondents were male (70.5%) within the age bracket of 41.5% years (45.6%) and were married (84.6%). Most attended tertiary education (49.7%), had family sixes of less than 5 (42.3) and cultivated 2 hectares of land (60.4%), but earned between N51.000 – N6-,000 annually (50.3%) and had 5 – 10 years (46.5%) of farming experience. The result on the types of improved technologies available in the area review that technologies such as cassava cutting multiplication, planting distance, use of improved varieties, weeds control using herbicides, and use of machines to process cassava into flour will be available for use, while technologies like cassava breeding, cloning, use of biological weed control agents, mechanized tillage operations, and use of machines to store cassava were not utilized in the area. The result further shows that many benefits were derived from the utilization of improved cassava production technologies, such as increased yield/output (3.87), increase in income (3.58), expansion of farm holding (3.28) and improved social/economic status (2.84). The study indicates that various improved cassava production technologies were utilized varying extent. It was also found that a substantial proportion of the respondents had fortnightly (47.7%) contact with extension service or agents and cultivated a variety of crops (e.g. yam 82.6%, groundnut 71.8% and maize 66.4%) beside cassava.  The result of hypothesis test showed that seven of the eight explanatory variables, ages, sex, marital status, educational level, family size, and income were significant at determining the utilization of improved cassava production technologies in the study area. In conclusion, the extent of utilization of improved cassava production technologies is very high due to high level of educated persons in the programme. Also, there is no significant difference in the relationship between the socio-economic characteristics and extent of utilization of improved cassava production technology among farmers in the study area. The finding was based on the data collected and analyzed. The result of the findings was disseminated through seminars, workshop and conference.