Effect of Adoption of Cocoa Technologies among Participants and Non-Participants of Farmers Field School in Abia State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study analyzed effect of adoption of technologies on the output of cocoa farmers in Abia State, Nigeria. Purposive and multi-stage random sampling procedures were used to select three hundred and sixty (360) respondents (180 FFS cocoa farmers and 180 non-FFS cocoa farmers). Data were collected with a structured questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive statistics, simple regression and Z-test analyses. The result indicates that FFS farmers had high adoption (=3.8) of cocoa production technologies. The estimates of the allocative efficiency of resource used by participants and non-participant cocoa farmers showed that the participant’s farmers were more resource efficient in the utilization of planting materials, fertilizer, agrochemicals and labour usage more than their non-participant counterparts and high cocoa output (23706kg) as against non-FFS cocoa farmers (15199kg). Simple regression result revealed that adoption of Farmers Field School cocoa production technologies influenced the output of cocoa at 1.0% level of probability in the study area. Z-test results showed a significant difference in cocoa output among FFS cocoa farmers and non-cocoa farmers at 5.0% levels of probability. The study therefore recommends increased extension contact by the programme facilitators and timely supply of farm inputs for higher cocoa output.