C. Sustainable Potato Production Through Intensification of Modern Agricultural Technology

Abstract

Potato is a cash crop for smallholder farmers and has been deemed important in food security.  However, yields only range from 6 to10 MT/ha, far below the attainable yields of 25–35 MT/ha.  Thus, technology adoption by farmers became necessary to address thechallenges of farm productivity. This study analyzed the adoption of potato production technologies among farmers in Bokkos, Plateaustate, Nigeria.  The multi-stage sampling procedure was used in selecting the 98 respondents.  Data were analyzed using descriptivestatistics, adoption, and mean score indices.  Results indicated that a variety of agricultural technologies had been disseminated inthe area.  Most respondents adopted a minimum of one production technology.  These technologies critically affect the level of farmproductivity and income.  The result also showed that 59.2% of the farmers had low levels of adoption index, with a range between0.11≥0.33,  indicating a need to mitigate this trend.   Furthermore,  the benefits of adopting potato production technologies amongthe respondents were very vital, as indicated by their respective indexes: improved output (2.56), increased income (2.53), improvedwelfare (2.43), reduced disease outbreak (2.41), improved adaptability to climate variability (2.38), improved technical efficiency (2.31),and improved productive capacity (2.19).  As such, factors with a score index≥2 were considered critical benefits.  The identifiedconstraints critically affected potato farmers’ capacity to adopt agricultural technology.   These constraints negatively affected theiradoption decisions, thereby resulting in a further decline in the adoption of agricultural technology in the study area.