Science Domain

 Journal

 Use Of Agricultural Extension Information For Mitigation Of Soil Degradation In Ondo State, Nigeria

 Odefadehan Olalekan1*, Adereti Tobiloba1 And Odefadehan Oluwaseun2

 2018

This research work examined the use of agricultural extension information to mitigate soil degradation in Ondo Central senatorial district of Ondo state, Nigeria. The study identified significant sources of soil degradation in the study area, determine how often the farmers used the available information on soil degradation mitigation and identified observed changes that occurred on the soil in the past five years. Methodology: A multi-stage random sampling technique was used in selecting respondents. Data were collected with the use of a structured questionnaire and interview schedule from 180 registered farmers across six communities in Ondo East and Ifedore Local Government Areas in Ondo Central senatorial district of the state. Results: Results of the study shows that soil degradation changes observed include a great increase in water logging, soil erosion and dumping of biodegradables. The most important source of information on soil degradation is agricultural extension agents. Information on organic manuring and crops were the top two information category used to mitigate soil degradation by the respondents. Test statistics showed that there was no significant relationship between changes in soil degradation and information use for mitigating soil degradation at .05 level of significance (P = .07; ?2= 1.957). Conclusion: Agricultural extension services served as the most significant source of information for the farmers on soil degradation mitigation. There was observed overall increase in soil degradation over the period of 5 years (2012-2017). The use of available information to mitigate soil degradation was occasional despite the availability of information 

 Department Of Agricultural Economics And Extension Ekiti State University.

 Journal

 ASSESSMENT OF TECHNOLOGY NEED PRIORITIES OF ARABLE CROP FARMERS IN ONDO STATE, NIGERIA

 Odefadehan Olalekan, Fasina Oluwatosin And Ige Taiwo

 2018

The study was designed to assess the need priority of the available technologies used by the arable crop farmers in Ondo State, Nigeria. The study described the socio-economic characteristics of the farmers, determined the available technologies in use by the respondents and determined the need priority among the technologies used by the farmers. . The study was carried out in Ifedore Local Government Area of Ondo State Nigeria. One hundred and twenty respondents were randomly selected for the study. Information was collected from the respondents with the aid of well-structured questionnaire while additional information was gathered with Focus Group Discussion (FGD). Data collected were analysed with the use of descriptive statistics, chi-square, ranking and correlation. The result revealed that the average age of the respondents involved in the production of arable crops in the study was 31 years. Improved variety of seed was the most important technology needed by the respondents in the study area, while machinery for commercial production was the least needed. In the study, use of agrochemicals was the technology mostly used while machinery was the least used technology. The chisquare analysis showed that there is a significant relationship between technology need of respondents and their marital status (p=0.00) and source of land (p= 0.00). The Pearson correlation coefficient also indicated a significant but negative relationship between respondent’s household size and technology need (r= -0.058, p=0.02). The distance of the farm to the village market was significant with the technology need of the farmers (p-value = 0.030). The study recommended that government effort should be channelled towards making improved varieties of seed available for the farmers at a subsidised rate. In addition public-private partnership should be encouraged to make capital-intensive technologies available to farmers at affordable rates. 

 University Of Nebraska - Lincoln

 Journal

 INFORMATION NEED, ACCESS, AND USE FOR SOCIAL WELFARE AND FAMILY PLANNING BY RURAL DWELLERS IN IDO AND AKINYELE LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREAS OF OYO STATE, NIGERIA

 Oluwaseun Olubunmi Odefadehan, Ayodele Akinola And Olalekan Odefadehan

 2016

The aim of this study was to investigate the information need, access and use for social welfare and family planning by rural dwellers in two LGAs of Oyo State. Specifically the study ascertained the Socio-economic characteristics of the rural dwellers in Ido and Akinyele and identified information need for family planning and social welfare. The study found that there were more female respondents than male in both local governments.The study also showed that there were more married respondents in Ido (84.5%) than Akinyele (63.9%), which reflected a difference of 20.6% between the two local governments. Trading was the most popular occupation among the rural dwellers in both Ido and Akinyele LGAs with only a difference of 1.3% between them. However, there were more respondents practicing farming in Ido than Akinyele while there were more civil servants in Akinyele than Ido. The study further revealed that the rural dwellers in Ido and Akinyele Local Government Areas of Oyo State need a variety of information to support them in family planning and social welfare. Such information needs include contraceptives, child spacing, adult literacy programmes, free healthcare for pregnant women, and poverty alleviation. Others included women empowerment, anti-women trafficking. However, it was observed that most of the information on contraceptives, adult literacy programme, usefulness of social welfare programmes, etc. were more needed in Ido than Akinyele except for needs like where to access the social welfare programme, average age for woman to stop child bearing, safe period and side effect which were more felt in Akinyele. Information on poverty alleviation was needed the same way in both local governments as indicated by 68.1% of the respondents respectively. The study clearly showed that only few respondents in both local governments had access to information on family planning and social welfare from sources like mobile phone, cooperative society, television, newspapers/magazine, and even television, health extension workers, as well as hospital/clinics. While family and friends, and radio were the most readily accessible to the rural dwellers in Ido, the respondents in Akinyele were able to access family and friends, customers/markets, and radio. It is therefore worthy of note that majority of the respondent in Ido and Akinyele Local Government Areas have inadequate access to information on family planning and social welfare. The inadequate family planning/social welfare information centre was a major challenge which was mostly experienced in both Ido and Akinyele, while that of difficulty in accessing information, untimely information and non-availability of information were more evident in Ido than Akinyele. Based on the findings of this study the following recommendations were made: Government should encourage the rural dwellers to acquire higher education since higher educational level was significant with both information need and use. Adult literacy programme should be strengthened where weak and introduced where it was non- existent. 

 Department Of Agricultural Economics And Extension Ekiti State University.

 Journal

 Implications Of Manual Farming On The Health Of Rural Farmers In Ifedore Local Government Area, Ondo State, Nigeria

 Odefadehan, O.O

 2008

The study assessed manual farming and its perceived implications on the health of rural farmers. The study ascertained farming practices performed manually, determined the attitude of respondents towards manual farming and determined access of farmers to agricultural extension services. The study was carried out in Ifedore Local Government Area of Ondo State Nigeria. One hundred and fourteen respondents were randomly selected for this study with the aid of pre tested structured questionnaire. Chi-square was used to test the stated hypothesis. Waist pain ranked first as the greatest implication of manual farming to the farmers based on spearman ranking. Finance was the challenge faced by most of the respondents. The chi-square analysis showed that there was significant relationship between the age of the respondents and manual farming (÷2=170.5; p-value of 0.000.) also between marital status and manual farming (÷2=246.1; pvalue 0.000). The study concluded that manual farming has serious implications on the health of the farmers in which waist pain ranked highest with mean value of 4.29. The study recommended that the government effort should be channelled towards making technologies available for the farmers at subsidized rate. Private-Public partnership in agricultural credit scheme should be encouraged to assist in funding mechanized farm operations