NEED ASSESSMENT OF WOMEN VEGETABLE FARMERS ON ECOLOGICAL ORGANIC AGRICULTURE (EOA) IN NIGERIA

Summary

Organic agriculture is a production system that sustains the health of soils, ecosystems and people which relies on ecological processes, biodiversity and cycles adapted to local conditions, rather than the use of inputs with adverse effects. Nigeria alone produces over 3.8 million tonnes of different types of vegetables annually using different kinds of chemical, which is short in the requirement compared to other developed countries. This study considered the need assessment of women vegetable farmers on organic agricultural practices hence provided information on which type of need would be more suitable or required by the respondents in the study area for healthy vegetable production. Vegetables can be produced all year round (dry or raining season) and requires little capital and less labour. The study area used for this research is Nigeria (The case of Akinyele Local government area of Oyo state). Purposive sampling technique was used to select 40% of the wards (that engage in vegetable production) in the Local Government area to give total respondents of 120. The level of information and knowledge of the women on OA is encouraging, majority (54.2%) of the respondents have high level of information, which is also reflected in their knowledge (72.5%), but with majority (51.7%) having unfavourable perception towards OA practices. There was significant relationship between the respondents’ sources of information and their training need (χ2=0.304; p=0.001) as well as agric-support service need (χ2=0.340;p=0.000). Also there was a significant relationship between farmers’ knowledge and training needs (χ2=0.199;=0.030) as well as agric-support support service needs (χ2=0.251; p=0.006),). There only exists a significant relationship between the farmers’ perception and Agric-support service need (χ2=0.342; p=0.000). The most important need of the respondents from this study is agric-support service (59.2%) followed by the training need (49.2%) and information need (42.5%) respectively. Also there was significant relationship between challenges faced by the respondents and their information needs (χ 2=0.997;p=0.000) as well as their support service needs (χ 2=0.942;p=-0.007). The result necessitates more training and re- training on issues OA and also agric-support services in order to make organic vegetable production a sustainable farming practice hence, improving food security globally.