Utilization of Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) Programme Services and Inputs among Rice Farmers in Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

Rice is an important staple food in Nigeria, which had caused decrease in foreign earnings of the country. In order to ensure food security and improve standard of living of farmers, the government of Nigeria established a transformation agenda for sustainability in the agricultural sector of the economy. Agricultural Transformation Agenda provides services and inputs to farmers. The study thus assessed the utilization of these services and inputs among rice farmers in Oyo state. Multistage sampling procedure was used to sample 145 registered ATA rice farmers from 4 highest rice producing local government areas in Oyo-state. Data were subjected to descriptive and inferential statistical analysis. Results reveals that the average age of the respondents in the study area was 45 years and the standard deviation to be 10.677, they were mostly males (65.0%) and about one third (30.0%) had secondary education with majority (63.0%) cultivating 1-5 hectares of land. More than half (52.0%) had low level of utilization of services and input of ATA. There was a significant relationship between farm area under rice cultivation (r= -0.28, p<0.05) and the level of utilization of ATA programme services and inputs among rice farmers. It is recommended that government at both federal and state levels should enter in to partnership with rice farmers for increased rice cultivation in bigger hectarage thereby effective utilization of the services and inputs under ATA, increase farmers’ outputs and in turn increase their income and subsequently reduce foreign earning spent on rice importation and reduce poverty.