Investigation of Level of Arable Crop Farmers Awareness of Soil Degradation in Imo State (Published)
Soil degradation has remained one of the most devastating environmental problems in Imo State. This study investigates the level of farmers’ awareness of soil degradation in Imo State. Data were collected using a structured and validated questionnaire from 342 randomly selected arable crop farmers. Data analyses were carried out using both descriptive and inferential statistical tools such as mean scores and rank order, frequency counts and percentages. Results shows that the majority of the arable crop farmers (70.50%) were females, married (81.29%), had up to secondary education (49.42%) and of average age of 56.80years. over three quarters of the people (80.70%) were members of different social organizations, with farming as their major occupation (62.00%). The result also indicated that almost all the farmers (95.9%) were aware of soil degradation more than half (56.4%) of the respondents have noticed it for a long time and they generally accepted that loss or change in vegetative cover and soil nutrient 2.70% is being observed to a great extent. 35.7% of the respondents classified the area covered by soil degradation in their farms as moderately serious. The study recommends among others that technologies which can help the arable crop farmers ameliorate the effect of soil degradation should be made available to them by the state government since the level of awareness is very high.
Keywords: Arable Crop Farmers, Imo State Nigeria, Soil Degradation, awareness