ABSTRACT

The study attempts to analyze the adoption of improved snail production technologies by small scale farmers in Aba North Local Government Area of Abia State. Primary data was used for the study and was obtained through a well structured questionnaire. A multi-stage random sampling technique was employed to select 40 snail farmers from ten (10) autonomous communities in the study area. Descriptive statistics and exponential regression model was used to analyze the data. The result showed that the mean age of respondents was 46.8 years and they were mostly male who are married. Majority (60%) had a mean household size of 5 persons per household. 97.5% had formal education while farming experience posted a mean of 7.1 years. The mean farm size was 201 snails per farm with low farm income of N42,500. Most 40% engage in teaching as major source of livelihood and had access with extension agents. Technologies identified by farmers include improved snail feeds, improved breeds of snails, improved snail house/pen construction, fitted snail rearing boxes, provision of adequate size of snail pens and incubation boxes while their level of adoption of these technologies include, improved feeds of snail (26%), improved breeds (24.4%), improved snail house/pen construction (16%), snail rearing boxes (16%), size of snail pen (9.2%) and incubation boxes (8.4%). Lack of sufficient investment capital, lack of access to credit, scarcity of land, information on improved technology, poor experience and technical knowledge on snail farming and poor access to extension agent are problems that constrained the level of adoption of snail production technologies. Sex, age, level of education, extension contact, farming experience and membership to cooperative society influenced the level of adoption of the snail production technologies. The study recommended that an enabling environment should be provided for the snail farmers to have easy access to capital that would enhance their level of adoption of new technologies in snail production.