Table 26: Rate of adoption of rice technologies

5.2.11 Rate of adoption of technologies disseminated to rice farmers As observed from table 26, rice recorded very impressive levels of technology adoption under ATASP-1 project. It was found that improved seed and weed management recorded 100% adoption levels while field preparation, determination of appropriate planting period and crop establishment all recorded about 99% levels of adoption while site preparation and fertilizer application recorded about 98% levels of adoption while the least which was pest and diseases control was 95% level of adoption. This is an indication of the high interest these farmers in dedicatedly joining the train of rice production.

Figure 7 presents the graphical presentation of adoption of technologies disseminated to rice farmers under the project, from the figure; it was found that rice farmers have the best technologies adoption rate as there was no technology that has less than 95% rate of adoption. This has raised the hope that we are on course towards becoming a major rice producing nation able to produce enough to meet national demands thus conserving our scarce foreign reserve for better use.

Table 26: Rate of adoption of rice technologies

S/No Technologies Frequency* Percentage 1 Improved varieties (Faro 44, Faro 52, Faro 60 and Faro 61 80 100 2 Site/Land preparation 78 97.5 3 Field preparation 79 98.8 4 Seed preparation 77 96.3 5 Determine planting season 79 98.8 6 Crop establishment 79 98.8 7 Weed management 80 100 8 Fertilizer application 78 97.5 9 Pest and Disease control 76 95.0

Figure 7: Bar chart showing rate of technology adoption by rice farmers (the serial number corresponds with the number on table 26)

5.3 Effects of Adoption of Good Agronomic Practices (GAP) on crop production Adherent to good agronomic practices are very important to the realization of any crop production objectives and that is one of the reasons why ATASP-1 project has imbibed these practices as a way of educating farmers to enable them up their productivity. Consequent upon this, one of the objectives of this study is the evaluation of the effects of good agronomic practices on the production of crops under the project namely cassava, sorghum and rice.

5.3.1 Effects of adoption of Good Agronomic Practices (GAP) on crop production One of the ways of evaluating the effects of good agronomic practices introduced by ATASP-1 is by looking at the yield before and after the project. The result from this is presented in table 27. From table 27, the average yield of cassava before ATASP-1 project was 9442.105Kg/ha whiles the average yield after the project was almost double at 16259.44Kg/ha. Subjecting these yields to T-statistic test revealed that there was statistical significant difference between the yield before and after the project has taken off at I% level of significance. The import of this is that the different in yield can only be attributed to the positive effect of the technologies introduced to farmers by the project.

Also looking at table 27, result revealed the yield of sorghum before the project to be 1186.185Kg/ha while the yield after the project was 2450.05Kg/ha. Subjecting these yields to tstatistical analysis showed that there was statistical significant difference between the yield before and after the project has started at 1% level of significant. This significance increase in yield is attributed to the effects of good agronomic practices introduced by the project to the participating farmers.

Finally, we also looked at the effect of good agronomic practices introduced to rice producing farmers in the program and it was found that yields before the project was 3210.03Kg/ha while yield after the project was 5384.55Kg/ha. When these yields were subjected to t-statistical test of difference, it was shown that there was statistical significant difference between yield before the project and yield after the project at 1% level of significant. This significance increase in yield is attributable to the effect of good agronomic practices or technologies introduced to the farmers. Graphical presentation of yields before and after ATASP-1 is as shown in figure 8. From the figure, it is very glaring that there is considerable increase in yields after the project implementation by showing the yields were due to project effects for cassava, sorghum and rice.