Socioeconomic Determinants of African Yam Bean (Sphenostylis stenocarpa) Production among Smallholder Crop Farmers in Ekiti State, Nigeria

The study examined socioeconomic determinants of African yam bean production among smallholder arable crop farmers in Ekiti State. Using structured questionnaire and interview schedule, data were collected from carefully sampled 120 AYB farmers across Ekiti State. The results showed that agricultural extension agents (85.0%) and fellow farmers or cooperatives (61.7%) are the prominent sources of farm-related information on AYB production. The result of the regression analysis showed R2 value of 0.8532, F-value of 448.57 and Prob>F value of 0.0000 indicating high overall goodness of the equation. Gender, education, household size, farm size and extension contacts are socioeconomic factors that significantly influenced AYB production. Major challenges militating against AYB production to include: inadequate finance by the farmers (78.3%), high cost of labour (72.5%), low yield of AYB per hectare (68.3%), pest and disease outbreak (65.8%), inadequacy of AYB for planting (60.8%) and old age of most of the farmers (53.3%) among others. The use of insecticides (81.7%), pesticides (40.8%) and use of traps (29.2%) constitute the highest pest and disease control measures used by the farmers. Hence, the study among others recommends capacity building of the farmers through education and training, increased farm size and extension contacts that will guarantee productivity.