FACTORS INFLUENCING ADOPTION OF IMPROVED TOMATO (SOLANUM LYCOPERSYCUM L.) PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGIES AMONG TOMATO FARMERS IN BARKIN-LADI AND PANKSHIN LOCAL GOVERNMENTS AREAS OF PLATEAU STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study examined the adoption of improved tomato production technologies among tomato farmers in Barkin-ladi and Panskhin Local Government Areas of Plateau State. Multistage sampling procedure was employed to select 183 tomato farmers from the study area. Primary data were collected through the use of structured questionnaire and analysed using descriptive statistics, adoption index and logit regression. The result of the adoption index showed that land preparation, chemical application and date of sowing were the technologies adopted with a mean score of 4.78, 4.33 and 4.13, respectively. Furthermore, the result of the logit regression revealed that educational status (0.6539), household size (0.8249) and access to credit (0.4661) were the factors influencing the adoption of improved tomato production technologies. The major constraints to the adoption of improved tomato production technologies were access to clean and certified seeds (74.9%), high cost of herbicides (73.2% ), high cost of improved seeds (72.7%)  and inadequate storage facilities (72.1%). The study concluded that educational status, household size and access to credit were the factors influencing the adoption of improved tomato production in the study area. The study recommended that relevant stakeholders should be involved in seed multiplication and distribution to make clean and certified seeds accessible and affordable to farmers for production.