ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study, was to determine the adoption of yam minisett technique by farmers in Ikeduru Owerri Agricultural zone of Imo State. The general objective include, to determine the extent to which these farmers are aware of this technique, the influence of socio-economic and personal characteristics of farmers, their rate of adoption and factors that affect the farmers adoption of yam minisett technique. The respondents comprised of 100 farmers who were randomly selected. Descriptive statistics which include (mean, frequency and percentage) and multiple regression analysis which include the four functional models (Linear, exponential, double-log and semi-log) were used to analyze the data collected. This was to select the model that best fit the data. Double logarithm (Cobb- douglas) was found the best fitted as it gives the best result with coefficient of multiple determination (R2)of 0.731%. This indicates that 73.1% of the variations was explained by the variables tested. The study revealed that 94% of the respondents were aware of the yam minisett technique, the percentage of sampled farmers who adopted the yam minisett technique (66%) was relatively high. Then, 64% of the respondents have farming as their primary occupation while 36% have it as their secondary occupation. Majority of the yam minisett farmers were males and belong to the middle age group (50-59). Education, Farm size, Experience in faming, Cooperative membership, and Contact with extension staff were all found to be significant determinants of adoption of yam minisett technique in seed yam production. The constraints indicated by the farmers were unavailability of fund, technical nature of the technique, scarcity and high cost of inputs (fertilizer, improved varieties, etc) and lack of sufficient land.