Determination and Evaluation of Factors Associated with Sustainable Land Management (SLM) Practices by Farmers in Osun State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study identified the sustainable land management practices being used by farmers in Osun State. The analysis determined the factors associated with the use of the land management practices and the best of the practices being used. Multistage sampling technique was used to select 256 farmers from eight Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the State. Eight different enterprise farmers were selected from the LGAs and four farmers were purposively selected from each enterprise. Data collected were described with frequency, mean and standard deviation while factor and regression analyses were used to make inferences for the study. The results revealed that the mean age of the farmers was 48.0±10.3, majority was married and about 60% were male. The mean household size was 6.6±2.8 and majority was able to read and write. The study identified 35 sustainable land management practices which were known to the farmers, out of which 28 were being practiced. Seven factors associated with the use of sustainable land management practices are: farming experience, economic, educational, accessibility to inputs, personal and family characteristics as well as soil fertility status. These factors were statistically significant (P < .05) to the use of soil management practices. We concluded that the level of awareness and use of sustainable land management practices in the state was still below the expected standard.