Farmers Contribution to Agriculture in Rural Development of Fufore Local Government Area of Adamawa State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study was carried out to access farmer’s contribution to Agriculture in Rural Development of Fufore LGA of Adamawa State, Nigeria. Seven wards within the LGA were selected (Ribadu, Gurin, Farang, Mayo-ine, Pariya, Karlahi and Yadim). Thirty (30) questionnaires were randomly distributed to the household in each ward selected through multi-state random sampling technique as primary data. A total of Two Hundred and Ten (210) farmers were selected for the study. Data were analyzed with the aid of descriptive statistics and multiple regression models. Results show that Age, Marital status, Farm size, Family size, Education level have percentage ranging from 10-28.6, 13.3-31, 4-69, 5.2-31 and 15.2-37.6% respectively while Primary occupation, Access to credit, Number of extension visit and farm income percentage values ranged from 3.8-43.9, 15.7-25.7, 5.7-53.4 and 8.1-35.7% respectively.  The result further shows that the majority of the respondents are still in their youthful stage and 31% of them were married. The study further reveals that 69% of the respondents cultivate on 1-5 hectares of land, the result of the multiple regression analysis indicates that farm size was negative and significant at 5% level; Education level has a positive coefficient and significant at 1% level while access to credit coefficient was positive and significant at 5% level. The findings of the regression equation determine the manner towards farmer’s contribution to agriculture in rural development and examine the constraints militating farmer’s contributions to agriculture in the study area. Cob-Douglas function with R­2 value of 0.813 was chosen as the lead equation. Low price of farm output poor extension visits, market distance, is some of the major problems affecting the contribution of agriculture to the development of the study area. It was therefore recommended that there is need to train and provide farming equipment’s, agricultural credit should also provide the needed environment to foster rural development facilities in Fufore Local Government Area of Adamawa State.