Influence of farmer' demographic characteristics on knowledge gap of recommended fadam technologies in Ilaro agricultural zone of Ogun State

The study determined the influence of farmers' demographic characteristics on the knowledge gap of recommended fadama practices in Ilaro agricultural zone of Ogun State through interviewing 83 fadama farmers. Statistical analysis was accomplished by the use of frequency and percentage distributions, multiple regression and mean statistics. Findings revealed that majority (68.7%) of the respondents were males who were married, primarily engaged in farming, members of at least one farmers' co-operative organization who participated in dry season farming annually and operated at subsistence level, cultivating less than one hectare of land. Majority (66.3%) of the respondents earned more than N10, 000 annually from dry season farming. About 49% of the respondents had between 11 – 20 years of dry season farming experience, majority (94%) of them used hired labour to carry out their fadama farming activities. The findings also revealed that majority (63.9%) of the respondents had high knowledge level of the recommended fadama practices. The results further showed that out of all the demographic characteristics measured, only years spent in school (formal education), numbers of farmers' co-operative organizations belonged to and gender were found to have negative influence on knowledge gap of farmers. The study therefore recommended that there should be active participation of female farmers in dry season farming as well as encouraging farmers to form and join more farmers' co-operative organizations in order to enjoy the benefits of group dynamics. Agro-Science Vol. 6 (2) 2007: pp. 52-5