TRAINING NEEDS OF FARMERS FOR ORGANIC FARMING IN NIGER STATE, NIGERIA .

Abstract

The study examined the training needs of farmers for organic farming in Niger State, Nigeria in order to assist agricultural extension personnel develop appropriate extension programming on organic farming. To achieve the study objective, 316 respondents were proportionately and randomly selected from three Local Government Areas in the State. Validated interview schedule with reliability coefficient of 0.84 was used for gathering data and data gathered were analyzed using descriptive statistics and correlation analysis. The results indicated that 55.7% of the respondents were within age range of 35-54 years. Application of green manure was the commonest technique of organic farming practised by the respondents in the study area for crop production. On animal production, finding revealed that there was high level of practise of organic farming techniques by the respondents. Major constraint faced by respondents in organic farming was lack of knowledge of appropriate predators for pest control (59.2%). Areas of training need of the respondents were packaging/labeling of organic foods/products, biological pest control methods and crop rotation techniques. The result further showed that educational level (r = 0.281), farm size (r=0.293) and family size (r=0.275) had significant relationship with the training needs of the respondents. Hence, collaborative and multi-disciplinary research term was recommended to help organic farmers with issues like use of manure and finding the best biological pest control methods. It was also suggested that farmers should be adequately trained by extension agents on packaging/labeling of organic products, biological pest control methods and other areas of organic farming using suitable teaching methods and materials