Gwandi, O.*, V. Kamalvanshi and P.S. Badal
Department of Agricultural Economics, Institute of Agricultural Sciences
Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, 221005
Email: godoffer2010@gmail.com
Received-09.03.2018, Revised-25.03.2018
Abstract: This study examines famers’ perception of the constraints affecting their livelihood strategies in Adamawa State, Nigeria. The objective of the study was to examine the socio-economic characteristics of food crop famers and to analyze constraints that affect their livelihood strategies. A multistage random sampling technique was used to select 150 food crop farmers from 8 villages of four local government areas each from the four Agricultural Development Zone of the State. Structured questionnaire survey was used to obtained data from the respondents in the study area. Descriptive statistics and Garret Ranking Technique was used to analyze the data obtained from the field survey. The study shows that majority 68.7% were full time farmers with average mean of 47 years of age and 30 years of farming experience. Majority (85.3%) was male farmers and only 15.3% of the respondent had no formal education with average land holding of 3.4 hectares. The result from the Garret Ranking Technique reveals that the most severe problem in the study area in term of financial constraints is inadequate access to credit facilities, lack of good roads was ranked the highest as infrastructural constraints and poor land fertility as the most severe among other production constraints. The study recommended intensive efforts of research toward reclamation of land fertility for sustainable agriculture, provision of affordable credit facilities and infrastructural facilities among other suggestions in the study.
Keywords: Farmers’Perception, constraints, Livelihood, strategies, Adamawa, Nigeria
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