Ways of Enhancing Food Production Through Organic Agriculture Among Farmers in Northern Zone of Cross River State, Nigeria

ABSTRACT

This work was designed to determine the ways of enhancing food production through organic agriculture among farmers. Five research questions and five null hypotheses guided the study. A survey research design was adopted for the study.The study was carried out in northern zone of Cross River State, Nigeria. The population for the study was 230 comprising 205 registered crop farmers and 25 Agricultural Development Programme (ADP) extension agents from Ogoja Agricultural Zone respectively. There was no sampling since the population was manageable. The instrument for data collection was structured questionnaire that was subjected to face validation by three experts. The reliability coefficient was estimated at 0.92 using Cronbach Alpha method. The instrument was administered to the respondents with the help of five research assistants which lasted for a period of two weeks. The research questions was code and analyzed with the statistical package for social scientist (SPSS) Version 20.0 Mean was used to answer the research questions and standard deviation was used to ascertain the closeness or otherwise of the response from the mean, while t-test was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 levels of significance. The major findings were that: (i) four of the organic agricultural methods was agreed upon to be adopted by the farmers. (ii) The thirteen items presented on the challenges faced by farmers were identified (iii) thirteen items were identified by the responded as mechanism for promoting organic agriculture (iv) The thirteen items presented to the respondent identified as role extension agents in organic agriculture. (V) Ten items on the inherent benefits of organic agriculture were also identified by the respondents. Based on the findings on the study conclusions were drawn and recommendations made which include; Farmers should be trained in the adoption of organic agricultural practices, based on International Federation of Agricultural Movements (IFOAMS) with the view to increase food production among farmers and ensure environmental sustainability, government should motivate the farmers through incentives or subsidies to those willing to adopt organic methods, to cope with their challenges encountered in organic farming and increase food production among farmers, the National Policy on Organic Agriculture as outline by the International Federation of Agricultural Movements (IFOAMS) should adopted to encourage the production of food through organic agriculture, retraining of extension agents on organic agricultural innovations, should be paramount to the government to enable them discharge their function to the farmers, the long run benefits of organic agriculture are numerous, the government should sensitize the citizenry on its benefits.