Rice Genomics and Genetics 2015, Vol.7, No.1, 1-10
7
2 Conclusion
This study examined the factors influencing the
awareness and adoption of improved rice varieties in
North central Nigeria. The awareness of improved
varieties was mainly accelerated by access to media
which suggests that there is potential for increasing
the diffusion of new varieties through existing
formal institutions and methods in the dissemination
of information on improved rice varieties. Farm size
cultivated to rice significantly affected intensity of
adoption, therefore factors aimed at increasing
available farm land for rice production will go a
long way to improve the adoption and intensity of
improve rice varieties. The study has also shown that
the propensity of cultivating (adopting) at least one
improved rice variety is high among farmers that
have access to credit. These findings point to the
importance of improving farmer’s access to financial
markets that enable them to acquire credit to purchase
seed and complementary inputs for improved rice.
Based on the findings of this study, it is recommended
that credit facilities should be provided to the
farmers at no collaterals with very low interest rates
by government and private sectors for improved
adoption in the study area. Thus, rice farmers should
form cooperatives through which they can partner
with financial institutions to facilitate release of
credit towards increasing rice production and
subsequently generate more agricultural income
Necessary efforts such as creation of awareness
about the potential benefits inherent in the adoption
of improved rice seed, increase in farmers’ education,
more publicity about the varieties released through
the media should be intensified.. They should also
be encouraged to diversify into other agricultural
production as the agricultural income significantly
influences both the probability and the intensity of
adoption.
3 Methodology
3.1 Study area and data
This study was conducted in North central Nigeria in
two states Benue and Nassarawa states. The North
Central zone is the largest producer of rice in
Nigeria, accounting for 47% of the total rice output
(PCU, 2001; Chuma, 2012). These states where
selected based on their large rice production area
and easy accessibility to sampling. Nasarawa and
Benue states are located in the north central zone of
Nigeria within the sub-humid region which lies
within the guinea savannah region of the country
with very fertile soils for rice production. They share
in the benefits of the Benue river valley for rice
production and are highly agrarian with a large
percentage of their populace (75%) engaged in rice
farming and other agricultural activities. Rainfed
upland and rainfed lowland are the major rice
production ecologies in the study area. The study
made use of primary data from the rice baseline
survey designed by AfricaRice and conducted by
NCRI.
3.2 Sampling Technique
A multistage sampling technique was employed by
AfricaRice for this survey. Nasarawa and Benue
states were purposively selected based on its large
involvement in rice production before the random
sampling approach was used in selecting two local
government areas each from the states. A total of
149 rice producing households were used for data
analysis. The questionnaire was structured to capture
the socioeconomic characteristics of the farmers,
farmers’ knowledge of rice varieties cultivated,
production activities, agronomic characteristics and
farm characteristics of the respondents among others.
3.3 Analytical Procedure
The data analytical techniques that were used in this
study comprised of descriptive statistics, probit
regression and Heckman model.
3.3.1 Probit regression model
The probit regression model was used to identify
factors determining the awareness (exposure) of
improved rice varieties by farmers in the study area
(table 5) The following model used by Lidia
Dandedjrohoun et al., (2012); Dontsop Nguezet et al.
(2010) was adopted for the analysis.
Where:
Y
i
* = Knowledge of Improved Variety (1=yes and 0
otherwise)
β
0
= Intercept
