EFFECTIVENESS OF ADOPTION OF IMPROVED TECHNOLOGIES ON LIVESTOCK PRODUCTION AMONG NOMADIC FARMERS

(A CASE STUDY OF NIGER AND KWARA STATES, NIGERIA)

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Author

Presented To

Department of Education

ABSTRACT
The study was carried out to investigate the effectiveness of adoption of improved technologies on livestock production among nomadic farmers in Niger and Kwara States. Four specific objectives, four research questions and four null hypotheses were formulated. The population for the study was nomadic farmers from two of the six Geo-political zones in Niger and Kwara States. Multistage sampling technique was used to select three hundred and fifty four nomadic farmers. Five hundred and eighty copies of questionnaire were used to collect data from the respondents, a rating scale questionnaire was used for the respondents to indicate their degree of agreement the formulated null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 alpha level of significance. Percentage was used to analyse the bio-data of the respondents, while mean was used to answer the research questions. The resultss from research questions indicate significant adoption of technologies by nomadic farmers. Data collected for the study were subjected to statistical analysis by the use of one sample chi- square test for null hypothesis one, while Pearson product moment correlation was used to test null hypotheses two ,three and four . Only Null Hypothesis I was retained because chi square value of 38.87 was lower than critical value of 40.113 at df 27 with significant p value of 0.6 higher than alpha level of significance, while null hypotheses two, three and four were rejected since their calculated significant (p) values of 0.000,0.002,0.003 were lower than alpha 0.05 level of significance , the finding also revealed that nomadic farmers have been able to use new technologies such as drugs for treatment of sick animals to improve their livestock production system. This has resulted in increased economic status of the farmers and improved standard of living among the nomadic farmers. However their strong belief in traditional values made it difficult to assimilate new systems into existing practice. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others things that government should encourage nomadic farmers to adopt modern farming practices and use improved technologies in livestock production, also government and nongovernmental organizations should make these technologies available at subsidized rate.