DETERMINANTS OF CROP ENTERPRISE DIVERSIFICATION AMONG SMALL HOLDER FARMERS IN DELTA STATE, NIGERIA.

ABSTRACT

The study analysed the determinants of crop enterprise diversification among smallholder crop farmers in Delta State. Specifically, it sought to ascertain the socioeconomic characteristics of respondent, the determinants of crop enterprise diversification among the smallholder crop farmers, the intensity of crop enterprise diversification, the different crop combinations, the reasons for participating in crop enterprise diversification, the likely benefits of participating in crop enterprise diversification and the constraints to crop diversification. Primary data for the study were obtained by the use of structured questionnaire administered to a cross section of 192 farming household that were randomly selected through a multi-stage sampling procedure.a three stage was used to draw samples for the study, using lottery method. The result obtained indicate that 61.3% of the farmers were females; most of the farmers have small farm size of 0.2-0.4 hectares. Test of Differences between means of Socioeconomic variables among farmers who participants in crop enterprise diversification and those who do not showed thowed that the following were significant p