EFFECT OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS OF FARMERS ON MAIZE PRODUCTION IN GOMBE STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

With increasing population of Nigerians leading to food shortage, cereals production especially maize should be encouraged to outstripped food insecurity and hunger. This research was carried out to ascertain the effect of socio-economic characteristics of farmers on maize production in Gombe State. The study made use of 222 respondents randomly selected through a multistage sampling procedure. Data were collected via structured questionnaire, analysed with descriptive statistics, regression and correlation.Results show that most maize farmers in the area were still active and energetic with productive age of between 35 and 54years, with about 62% been married, while male dominatemaize production. The respondents mostly had secondary education, with between 6 to 10 persons per household, cultivating on less than 2 hectares of farm holding, with good farming experience. The study shows that respondents are not cooperative society’s members, neither are they accessible to adequate extension services. Furthermore, age, educational status, farm size, and access to credit were noticed to significantly influence the production of maize in the study area. The findings imply that a married male farmer within anactive age, with a medium size household, who has gained reasonable experience,cultivating in large farm holding, with access to credit and extension contact will be producing large quantity of maize to offset hunger and food insecurity thereby attaining food security.Therefore, the study recommends thatextension agents should be employed in the State to fill the shortfall in extension service personnel; a financial scheme should be made available to maize farmers by the government and agricultural stakeholders to increase access to credit; andthe traditional land tenure system should be reviewed to increase accessibility to land for those who want to expand their farm sizes.