Impact of Integrated Pest Management Techniques’ Adoption on Maize Productivity in Southwest, Nigeria

Abstract

The study specifically determined the factors influencing farmers’ adoption of the integrated pest management (IPM) and the impact of IPM adoption on farmers’ productivity in the study area. These were done with a view to investigating how adoption of IPM affects farmers’ productivity and efficiency in Southwestern Nigeria. A multi-stage sampling procedure was employed to select respondents. In the first stage, purposive sampling technique was used to select three States (Ekiti, Ogun and Osun) based on their prominence in maize production in Southwestern Nigeria. In the second stage, four Local Government Areas (LGAs) per State and three villages per LGA were purposively selected. In the third stage, stratified sampling was used to categorize maize farmers into adopters and non-adopters of integrated pest management techniques (IPM) and ten maize farmers were randomly selected in each stratum to give a total of seven hundred and twenty maize farmers for the study.  Data were collected with the use of a pre-tested structured questionnaire on farmers’ socioeconomic characteristics, farm characteristics, adoption status, integrated pest management techniques (IPM), quantities and maize of inputs and output. Data were analysed using inferential statistics. Tobit regression estimates showed that farmer’s age, net farm income, farm size and availability of integrated pest management (IPM) techniques significantly influenced adoption behaviour of integrated pest management techniques (IPM). Results of the Propensity Score Matching showed a significant positive impact of (267.34 kg/ha) on maize productivity while instrumental variable regression showed an impact of 338.29 kg/ha. It was concluded that adoption of integrated pest management techniques (IPM) significantly improved maize productivity in the study area.