An Assessment of the Use of Agricultural Inputs and Farm machinery Among Food Crop Farmers in Kogi State, Nigeria

Abstract

The need for the country to achieve food security has gained some attention in recent times. Yet food crop production
growth rate figures are still low compared with other sub-sectors of agriculture. This might be as a result of the lack of cognizance of
the constraints that inhibit food crop production. This study therefore assessed the constraints to the use of farm inputs and machinery
among crop farmers in Kogi state, Nigeria. Primary data used for the study were collected using a well structured questionnaire. A
four-staged random sampling technique was used to select a total of 109 farmers used for the study. The main tool of analysis of the
study was descriptive statistics. The results showed that farmers in the study area were in their middle age group with an average of 45
years. The level of education of the farmers was low with the majority (46.2%) having only primary education. About 63.2 percent of
the farmers did not own the farmland they cultivated. The average farming experience of the respondents was 18 years. The study
showed that 87.2 percent of the farmers could not use modern farm machinery due to insufficient capital and high hiring cost. About
76.1 percent were unable to obtain credit due to lack of collateral. Also, 63.3 percent of the farmers did not use agrochemicals due to
the high cost of purchasing the agrochemicals. The study therefore recommends that farmers should be encouraged to form
cooperatives to make it easy for them to access farm inputs such as credit, execute bulk purchase for inputs like agrochemicals and
collectively hire farm machinery. Bank policies on credit availability, especially loan services among small scale rural farmers should
be made more farmers friendly. Farmers should be enlightened and encouraged on how to access loan from agricultural banks such as
the Nigerian Agricultural and Rural Development Bank (NARDB).