Awareness and Adoption of Good Agricultural Practices among Smallholder Farmers in relation to the Adopted Villages programme: The Case Study of Northern Nigeria

摘要

This study assesses smallholder level of awareness and uptake of good agricultural practices (GAPs) that were initiated by the National Agricultural Extension and Research Liaison Services (NAERLS) in Nigeria; a programme to enhance the agricultural productivity and income of participants. This study engaged with 120 smallholder farmers and their extension officer and data were collected via structured face-to-face and livelihood questionnaires and then analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings show that 82% of participants were aware of the specific GAPs covered by the NAERLS programme. Despite this, the majority of respondents were not practicing these. Participants identified numerous challenges to GAPs implementation, including; unreliable and inadequate rainfall; lack of farm inputs; high cost of farm inputs; lack of technical know-how; lack of irrigation facilities and high illiteracy. The study also shows that the level of awareness of GAPs among farmers in the study areas has a statistically significant impact on the productivity and livelihoods of smallholders. These initial results strongly suggest that the Nigerian government should provide funds to support NAERLS in order to intensify its intervention efforts. In the same vein, NGOs, rural developers, policy makers and government at all levels should be encouraged to provide farm inputs and credit facilities to farming communities to offset the high costs of inputs.