Socio-economic factors influencing adoption of yam Minisett Technology in Niger State of Nigeria

Nigeria produces about 70% of the world’s yam accounting for about 39.9 million tonnes. The major constraint has being that of planting seeds amounting to about one third of the total production cost. In order to reduce this perennial production problem, yam minisett technology developed by National Root Crop Research Institute, Umudike, was thought to be an alternative to solving the planting seed menace. This study attempts to investigate the socio-economic factor influencing the adoption of this new technology. It was conducted in all the 25 local Government areas of Niger State. Data were collected by multi – stage random sampling technique using structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis were used to analyse the information collected. Results showed that majority of the farmers interviewed had no access to credit, very low extension contact, low levels education, lack of awareness about the minisett technology and therefore were yet to adopt the minisett technology. Farm size (0.796), labour input (-0.585), cooperativeness (1.026), extension contact (0.959), income (0.473) and credit (0.533) were found to significantly influence the adoption of the yam minisett technology. The study recommends increased farm advisory services. Farmers should belong to Cooperative societies. Key words: adoption, minisett technology, socio-economic facto