Farmers’ willingness to take part in Sorghum-based Innovation Platform in Niger State, Nigeria

Abstract

The research examined the determinants of farmers willing to partake in sorghum-based innovation platforms, ascertained the factors influencing their willingness and constrained to their participation. Structured questionnaire was used to elicit data from 350 registered respondents drawn from Niger State. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Probit and multiple regression. The result reveals that farmers mean age was 40. About 85 % of them were married with household size of 1-5 persons. The result of probit showed that availability of active labour force, income from the sorghum, number of training, access to extension service and market access were the major determinant to farmers’ participation in sorghum innovation plat form. Major constraints were; untimely meeting, poor means of transportation, information gap and complexity of innovation. The study concludes that farmers were willing to participate in sorghum-based innovation platform but do not have enough capital base. The study recommends that farmers should be link up with credits institutions and timely meeting should be conducted.