ABSTRACT

The study was on socio — economic analysis of farming risk in food crop production in Ikwuano Local Government Area of Abia State. It was observed that food crop production had been greatly affected by the incidence of risk, which has also affected the output of farmers. This study was therefore design to identify the major types of food crops produced in the study area, identify the risks and the strategies adopted to manage the risk by the food crop farmers, also to estimate the factors influencing the reduction of risk on the output of the food crop farmers. Questionnaire was used to collect primary data for the study from a total of 95 food crop farmers from the four clans that made up Ikwuano L.G.A. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and multiple regression. The result shows that 54.74% of the respondents were females, 73.69% were married. 52.63% of the respondents had between 6 — 10 household size. 70.53% of the respondents had Farming as their primary occupation. The study shows that about 33.68% of the respondents belong to the age range of 40 — 49 years. According to the results, the predominant risks in the study area are natural, social and the destruction of the food crops by animals. It was noted that 95.84% of the respondents faces pest and disease attack as the major food crop risk. The respondents were discovered to have adopted old and traditional ways of managing risk. The result of the analysis shows that the independent variables included in the model accounted for about 5 8.2% of the variation in the dependent variable. Farm size, average prices of food crops, inputs used and off-farm income were major significant factors influencing the reduction of risk on the output of the farmers. The respondents are moderately literate and are predominantly farmers, with large family size. Measures that will ensure price mechanisms should be put in place as to bring maximum benefit from fanning; this will help the food crop farmers to increase their productivity. In addition, the farmers should be enlightened about the importance of insurance as a measure of risk management strategy in reducing the effect of risk on their output. Also, measures that will be used to reduce risk based on input use should be put in place to ensure the achievement of food sufficiency to the growing population.