Perceived Benefits of Adoption of Improved Rice Production Technologies Among Small–Scale Farmers in Kogi state, Nigeria.

The study examined the benefits of adoption of improved rice technologies among small - scale rice farmers in Kogi State, Nigeria. The specific objectives were to; describe the socio - economic characteristics of the rice farmers, assessed farmers' level of adoption of improved rice technologies, identify the rice farmers' sources of agricultural information and source of information preferred, identify the benefits derived from adoption and identify the constraints to rice production in the area. Primary and secondary data were used for the study. Data were collected using structured questionnaire from 212 rice farmers. Data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics. Results show that 59.9% of the respondents were male, and within the ages of 40 - 49 years. The majority (58.0%) of the respondents were married and 60.8% of the farmers depend on extension agents for agricultural information. The improved technologies disseminated; rice production facilities, rice farming inputs, field preparation were adopted with adoption index of 0.70, 0.71 and 0.77 respectively indicating high adoption level, while processing technologies had low adoption level with adoption index of 0.37. Increased output (98.6%), acquisition of skills (91.5%), increase in income (85.5%) and expansion of farm land (72.2%) were the major benefits derived by the farmers from adoption of the technologies. The study concluded that the major benefits derived from adoption of the technologies were increased farm size, increased output and income, and the major constraints to rice production were inadequate finance and credit facilities and poor soil fertility. Extension agents should encourage the farmers to re-invest their income for more output and income. Government and financial institutions should also provide the farmers with production credit in form of loan at low interest rate, so that they can afford some of the technologies