Table 14: Membership of Associations by farmers

Figure 4: Farmer's access to credit by Crops

5.1.14 Farmers' association membership Membership of association exposes farmers to several benefits such as training, inputs purchase at reduce price, easy marketing of farm produce and easy access to credit. From table 14, it was found that sizeable number of participating farmers were members of cooperative association. For cassava, about 92% of the participants were members of cooperative association, about 91% of sorghum were members while 100% of rice participants were members of cooperative association. This in fact will give these farmers opportunities to access much assistance from government and nongovernmental organizations

Finally, on the number of years these farmers have participated in cooperative associations, it was found that the average for cassava was 6 years, for sorghum it was 4 years while for rice it was 5.5 years.

Table 14: Membership of Associations by farmers

Membership of association Cassava Sorghum Rice Yes 55(91.67) 73(91.25) 80(100) No 5(8.33) 7(8.75) -

Years of participation 1-5 6-10 11-15 >15 Average 33(55)

39(48.75) 13(21.67) 19(23.75) 3(5) 6(10) 6 8(10) 4(5) 4 47(58.8) 24(30.0) 7(8.75) 2(2.5) 5.5

5.1.15 Access to agricultural training Training is very important in running any business and farming is not an exemption as the person being trained will be able to receive get better understanding on how such business should be managed. From table 15, about 98% of cassava participating farmers in ATASP-1 project claimed they have been trained, about 94% of sorghum participating farmers also claimed they have been trained while 100% of farmers participating in rice production claimed they have been trained. It was equally discovered that the bulk of the training given to these farmers took place in 2016 and 2017 after the inception of ATASP-1 project indicating that the training were organized by ATASP-1 project.

As shown in table 15, training have been organized for farmer under the project in farm establishment method, cultivar selection, water management, nutrient management, weed management, farm production practices and in other areas so as to help these farmers improve their productivity and income. However, these farmers have indicated that they would still want more training in those topic that have been taught to them and additional training in other areas such as farm establishment, cultivar selection, water management, nutrient management, weed management, farm production practices, seed treatment and good storage practices. The fact that these farmers are clamoring for more training is an indication that they understand the importance of training and new technologies for improved production and it also shows that they will be willing to adopt new technologies that are geared towards productivity improvement.