ABSTRACT

The study examined the determinants of the use of inorganic fertilizers and the productivity of arable crop farmers in Oguta Local Government area. The objectives of this study were to ascertain the socio-economic characteristics of respondents, determine the quantity of inorganic fertilizers used and the productivity of the respondents as well as to identify and analyze the determinants of inorganic fertilizers and productivity of arable crop arable farmers in the study area. Data were collected by means of simple random sampling technique. Data were collected from 60 arable crop farmers randomly from the 6 communities that make up the Local Government area of study (Oguta) through a well structured questionnaire. Data were analyzed using tables, frequencies, percentages and multi regression analysis. In the result for the determinants of inorganic fertilizer use by the respondents, linear functional form was chosen as the lead equation. It shows an R2value of 0.843, this indicates that 80.43% of the variations or inorganic fertilizer use was explained or accounted for by the independent variable considered in this study and in the result for the detejininant of productivity of the respondent the semi-log functional form was chosen as the lead equation. It shows an R2of 0.982 which indicates that 98.24% of the variation in the productivity of the respondents was accounted for by the independent variation used for the study. Income, farming experience, access to •credit and access to fertilizer were significant for the determinants of inorganic fertilizer use while age and cost of labour were significant for the determinant of productivity.