WHAT DRIVES TECHNOLOGY UTILISATION, LEARNING AND TRANSFER IN AGRICULTURE? LESSONS FROM NIGERIAN WOMEN FARMERS

This study examines the factors that drive technology utilisation, learning and transfer among women farmers in Nigeria. It assesses both modern and indigenous technologies used in farming activities. Three states were purposively selected from the six that comprise the South West geopolitical zone of the country. Structured questionnaire was administered to 180 women smallholder farmers who were randomly selected in equal proportion across the three states. Some 128 copies of questionnaire were retrieved representing a response rate of about 71%. The study reveals that majority of the women (about 67%) use indigenous technologies while only a few (17%) and 16% use modern technologies and a combination of both respectively. Family and friends are the main source of learning indigenous technologies while extension agents are the major source of modern. The study uses spearman correlation to determine the drivers of the dependent variables. Age, level of education, years of experience and learning intensity are significantly correlated with technology utilisation at 1% level of confidence while primary occupation and learning have significant correlation with technology learning at 5% and 1% confidence level respectively. The study also reveals that farmers' age, experience and availability of learning system are have significant correlation with technology transfer. The study advocates the introduction of need and gender-specific new technologies. There is the need for integration of indigenous technologies into research so that it can be attractive to the older women. Also, farmers should be integrated into the technology development process. This will help in sustaining the rising interest of younger women in adapting modern and indigenous technologies in agriculture. The study also advocates the need for deeper and broader interactions among key actors, such as, R& D institutions, extension agents, NGOs, CBOs and farmers on the effectiveness and variety of channels used in technology learning, utilisation and transfer. Appropriate public policy interventions should also be introduced to develop ` smallholder-friendly' technologies, especially among women, to curb market failures in technology adoption.