Effect of land management practices on productivity of food crop farmers in north-central Nigeria

Abstract

The study estimated the Total Factor Productivity (TFP) and its determinants among food crop farmers in North-Central Nigeria to determine the effects of land management on their productivity. Data were collected from 345 farmers using multistage sampling technique.
Data analyses were carried out using descriptive statistics, TFP and regression analysis. Prevalent land management practices were; application of inorganic fertilizer (19.4%), crop rotation (16.2%), alley cropping (13.9%), application of organic manure (13.6%), mulching (13.3%), bush fallowing (12.5%) and cover cropping (11.1%). Results also indicated that 30.2% of the sampled household heads were productive, in other words, their productivity value was above average across all the land management categories except in the case of mulching where 47.8% were above average. Determinants of TFP estimate reveals the following factors as having a significant contribution to productivity at (P ˂ 0.05) in the study area; age (-2.461), education of household heads (0.210), farming experience (0.154), access to extension (0.129), alley cropping (0.226), crop rotation (0.386), mulching (0.082) and organic manure (0.492). While the age of household heads impacted negatively on productivity, all others impacted positively in the study area. The study concludes that land management practices are productivity enhancer. Promoting sustainable LMPs that are farm or farmer specific is recommended.