Assessment of Agricultural Technology Adoption Behaviour among Crop Farmers in Ikwerre Local Government Rivers State

The study assessed agricultural technology adoption behavior among small scale crop farmers in Ikwerre local Government, Rivers state. The aim of the study was to assess small scale farmers’ adoption behavior on new farm input, farm techniques and farm machineries/tools. One hypothesis was tested to determine the influence of crop farmers’ socioeconomic characteristics on agricultural technology adoption behavior. The study adopted a correlation survey design. The population of the study was all registered crop farmers in Ikwerre local Government Rivers State. Eighty (80) small scale crop farmers were selected using cluster random sampling technique. The instrument used for the study was a self-structured questionnaire which was face and content validated by research experts. The reliability of the instrument was established using Cronbach Alpha which gave to 0.88 reliability coefficient. Mean and standard deviation were used to analyze the data gathered from the respondents and the hypothesis was tested using multiple regression analysis at 0.05 level of significance. The study found that uncertainty, fear of taking risk to test the new inputs and waiting to see the consequences of the new technology on early adopters among others are the agricultural technology adoption behaviour among crop farmers in Ikwerre local Government Rivers State. The study also concluded that socio-economic characteristics of farmers significantly influence agricultural technology (Farm input, techniques, and machineries/tools) adoption behavior among crop farmers. It was recommended that Agricultural extension agents should publicize the positive result of the new farm technology among rural farmers so as to increase the adoption rate of agricultural technology.