Influence of Demographic Variables on Crop Farmers’ Adoption of Agricultural Technology in Gombe State

Abstract

The study determined the influence of demographic variables on crop farmers’ adoption of agricultural technology in Gombe State. Three specific objectives which are in line with three research questions and three null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. A Descriptive Survey Design was used for this Study. The population of the study comprises all the 22,682 registered crop farmers in Gombe State as at 2020 farming season. A total of 320 crop farmers out of the entire population formed the sample size of the study; they were selected using multi-stage sampling technique. A 6 item structured questionnaire was used in collecting data. The data collected were analysed using both descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation to answer research questions, while simple linear regression was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significant. The result indicated that, male crop farmers adopted agricultural technology faster than their female counterparts; also farmers’ adoption of technology is proportionate to their level of educational qualification. More so, the result showed that membership to cooperative society influenced crop farmers’ adoption. However, all the corresponding null hypotheses were rejected, as there was a significant positive influence of the variables under study on crop farmers’ adoption of agricultural technology. It was concluded that, gender, education level and membership to cooperative society had significant positive influence on crop farmers’ adoption of agricultural technology. It was recommended that, State Governments should increase awareness campaign programme for educating crop farmers, so as to improve their level of adoption of agricultural technology.