Effect of property rights and land management practices on crops productivity among farmers in Oyo State, Nigeria

This study analyzed the effect of property rights and land management practices on crops productivity among farmers in Oyo State, Nigeria. Multi-stage sampling techniques were used to select a total number of 250 farmers in the study area. A production function based on transcendental logarithmic model was used to capture economic and land management variables considered. Also, the determinants of input use and land management practices were investigated via the use of logit model. The results showed that the mean age of farmers is 46.1 and more than 84 percent took farming as their main occupation, 83.3 percent of the farmer’s household members were literate at primary level and 16 percent of the farmers do not actually own the land they cultivated. In terms of intensity of cultivation, the Rutherberng value of 0.589 showed that farming system practiced in the state was moving towards permanent cultivation under the natural fallow management system. Furthermore, Logit analysis showed that age, farm size, income, extension agent, land price and risk bearing have significant effect on land management practices and crops productivity. The study therefore suggested some recommendations which include: introduction of better land management practices, provision and use of land augmenting material that would ensure land management quality maintenance and input use productivity; introduction of price support program by the government. Also, government should formulate and implement economically viable land reforms policy to ensure that the farmers feel emotional attachment to the land they cultivate.