Farmers adoption and propensity to abandoned adoption of sawah-based rice farming in the inland valley of central Nigeria

This paper describes a process of technology dissemination to rice farmers cultivating inland valleys in Nigeria. The sawah-based rice production technology is an adapted rice production technology system in Asia, which consists of leveled field surrounded by banks with inlet and outlet connecting irrigation and drainage canals, row transplanting of improved variety and fertilizer application. The sawah system has contributed substantially to the Green Revolution in Asia and is hypothesized to be the key to improve rice production in Africa. This paper presents views of twenty-four farmers who were participating or have ever participated in the sawah development project on why they will adopt sawah technology as well as the factors that may make them discontinue the adoption. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze the socio-economic features of the farmers. The results show that majority of the farmers are about 40 years of age with quranic form of education and have been farming for 22 years. The land tenure system is predominantly through inheritance and fanners cultivate 2.5 rice plots. The average years of sawah experience is about 5 years and 33 percent of farmers are currently using power tiller in their sawah basins. Meanwhile, the result of farmer's evaluation shows that after years of continuous efforts, the advantages of the sawah system over the traditional system, namely higher yield, better water and weed control, have been recognized and highly valued by participating farmers. Difficulty in water control for plot with sandy soil in flood-prone area, limited plot size due to land tenure system and high labour requirement that can be solved by the introduction of power tiller are major reasons that farmers gave as hindrances to the adoption of sawah technology.