Evaluation of Adoption of Improved Rice Varieties Among Small-Scale Farmers: A case of Goronyo Local Government Area of Sokoto State, North-Western Nigeria

This study was undertaken to evaluate the adoption of improved rice varieties among small-scale farmers in Goronyo Local Government Area of Sokoto State, Nigeria. One hundred and twenty (120) rice farmers from three purposively selected rice production communities were randomly selected for the study. Structured questionnaire was the instrument used to gather information from the farmers. Descriptive statistics and linear regression techniques were used to analyze the data obtained. The result of the research revealed that rice farming in the study area is a man dominated enterprise, majority of them were married and in active productive ages. Majority of the farmers were small scale farmers with plots of land of less than 4 hectares. The level of awareness of the farmers on improved rice varieties was very high with mass media as the main source. The improved rice varieties disseminated to the farmers were Ex – China, Faro and Cp varieties and their adoption rate was very poor due to lack of efficient extension delivery system and strong inclination on socio-cultural beliefs. Regression analysis proved a significant relationship between some of the farmers socio-economic characteristics (age, land acquisition and extension contact) while some of the socioeconomic characteristics (education and land size) were not significant with adoption of improved rice varieties. The study concluded that there was poor adoption of the improved rice varieties due to poor agricultural extension delivery and strong inclination of the farmers to sociocultural beliefs, recommending that efficient and trained agricultural extension agents should be deployed to the area to impart knowledge that helps in reducing strong affiliation on socio-cultural beliefs among the farmers.