Factors Influencing Adoption of Sustainable Soil and Water Conservation Practices among Smallholder Farmers in Kwara State, Nigeria.

Abstract The study examined the factors influencing the adoption of soil and water conservation practices (SWCPs) among smallholder farmers in Kwara State, Nigeria. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 210 farmers for the study. Farmers were surveyed for their adoption of eleven (11) SWCPs, and 19 other characteristics including demographics, socio-economic factors, risk factors and costs of production. Poisson regression model was employed to estimate soil and water conservation practices adoption. The results showed that gender, access to credit services, land acquisition, technical support, owned livestock, distance to input/market, marital status and formal trainings have a significant relationship with the number of soil and water conservation practices adopted by smallholder farmers at 1% significance level. The study concluded that some personal and demographic factors, institutional factors, as well as socio-economic factors have a significant relationship with soils and water conservation practices adopted by farmers in the study area. It was recommended that agricultural policies should be geared towards helping smallholder farmers have access to extension service contact for frequent dissemination of agricultural technology information as this will increase the rate of adoption of soil and water conservation practices. Keywords: Adoption, Soil and water conservation techniques; Smallholder farmers, Kwara State, Poisson Mode