This study examined factors influencing inorganic fertilizer use among rice farmers in Ebonyi state, Nigeria. A total of 120 rice farmers were purposively selected and used for the study. Data were collected by use of interview schedule and analyses were conducted using frequency, percentage, mean score and regression. Results showed that the respondents applied mostly urea fertilizer (54.2%) usually once (55.8%) on rice farm using broadcast method (100%). The amount of fertilizer applied per hectare in rice farm was 85.63kg. Rice farmers’ inorganic fertilizer use were influenced by number of years spent in school, years of experience in rice production, total size of farm used for rice, total annual income earned from rice production and number of extension agent visit. Surprisingly, rice output (t =1.243; p≥0.05) had no significant influence with inorganic fertilizer use. Government through the ministry of agriculture should organize workshops and train farmers on inorganic fertilizer use so as to enhance adequate use. Also, government and other relevant stakeholders in agriculture should ensure that inorganic fertilizers are available, accessible and affordable to farmers at all time so that they could maximally utilize it in rice production.

Conflicts between crop farmers and herdsmen in Nigeria have intensified in recent decades, posing a danger to agricultural sustainability, rural livelihoods, and food security. This study investigated coping strategies that arable crop farmers have adopted in Enugu State, Nigeria, against herders’ incursions. Data were collected through the use of a structured questionnaire. According to the result, herders’ activities, including crop destruction, assaults on women, and intimidation, have severely affected livelihoods, which has resulted in reduced income and declining productivity. In response, most farmers applied some measures such as fencing, group farming, and cultivating small plots near homesteads to avoid clashing with the marauding Fulani pastoralists. Among all the measures adopted by the farmers, results reveal that only collective strategies, such as group farming and cultivating small plots close to homesteads, were sustainable. The study pointed out the limited capacity of rural households to cope alone and suggested the need for government assistance, such as the provision of less expensive protective infrastructure and stronger community security arrangements. The study recommends that the government should ensure and employ conflict management strategies through empowering traditional institutions with delegated legislation to ameliorate further occurrences. The research contributes to the body of literature by revealing the farmers’ viewpoints and strategies within the broader discourse on farmer–herder conflicts in Nigeria.

This study investigated farmers’ use of sustainable production practices for yellow pepper crop in the Nsukka agricultural zone, Enugu State, Nigeria. Multi-stage sampling procedure was used in selecting 135 farmers and interview schedule using structured questionnaires was employed for data collection. Data generated were analysed with SPSS software using frequency and percentage, mean scores, standard deviation, factor analysis, and logistic regression. Findings revealed that the majority (91.1%) of the yellow pepper farmers had moderate knowledge on sustainable production practices and that some of the practices used were mass selection (97.0%), use of poultry manure (95.60%), use of improved varieties of yellow pepper (94.0%), crop rotation practices (91.10%), and minimum use of agrochemicals (78.50). Among the factors considered to be potential determinants of farmers’ use of sustainable production practices, only sex was statistically significant, at 5% level. Also, findings indicated that technical, institutional, and economic constraints affected farmers’ use of sustainable production practices. Furthermore, results indicated that sustainable production practices could be enhanced through the use of improved seeds (85.5%), access to credit facilities (77.8%), access to extension services (71.8%), and training of farmers (68.9%). The study therefore recommends that government and private sectors should provide services that will facilitate the development of sustainable production practices of Nsukka yellow pepper crop, as this will have a long-term effect on productivity and the production environment.

This study ascertained information needs of rice farmers on inorganic fertilizer use. One hundred and twenty rice farmers purposively selected from Ebonyi State, Nigeria constituted sample for the study. An interview schedule was used to collect data while percentage, mean scores and factor analysis were used for data analysis. Findings indicated that the majority (92.5%) of the respondents obtained information on inorganic fertilizer use from families and friends, all (100%) the respondents obtained fertilizer from the markets while 98.4% had no training on inorganic fertilizer use. Important areas that respondents required information on inorganic fertilizer use for rice production were on how to get fertilizer easily ((x) over bar =1.89), how to detect good or bad fertilizer ((x) over bar =1.86) among others. Institutional, technical, logistic and health constraints limited the farmers from using inorganic fertilizer in rice production. Provision of fertilizer subsidy by government (99.2%) and increase in accessibility of fertilizer by farmers (98.3%) were some of the strategies for improving inorganic fertilizer use on rice production. Extension should furnish farmers with information and training on where to get good fertilizer easily and how to use them in rice production.

The majority of the farmers (73.3%) sourced land through lease/purchase, and capital resources through personal savings (78.3%). The ratios of marginal value product (MVP) to marginal factor cost (MFC) show that no input was efficiently allocated by the arable crop farmers. Results on the effects of the amount of farm resources mobilized and used on arable crop productivity show a positive significant relationship with some variables at 1% level. Also, lack of finance, lack of land, poor road network etc were constraints on farm resources mobilization and allocation efficiency among arable crops farmers. Thus, the study concluded that the amount of farm production resources mobilized was little and farmers were ignorant of proper use. Therefore, the government and other stakeholders in the agricultural sector should organize regular workshops/seminars to educate arable crop farmers on the effective and efficient use of resources to achieve the best output.