ABSTRACT
Nigeria faces a growing challenge of food insecurity, partly due to limited and unpredictable rainfall patterns affecting food production. Traditional irrigation methods, often reliant on unreliable grid electricity or expensive fuels, further restrict farmers' ability to ensure consistent yields. Solar powered irrigation systems has the potential to improve food production. Hence, this study was conducted to assess the adoption of solar powered irrigation systems among vegetable farmers in Ovia North-East LGA, Edo state. This was achieved by examining the following objectives; the socio-economic characteristics of the vegetable farmers, the types of vegetables grown, the level of adoption of solar powered irrigation, benefits of solar powered irrigation, factors influencing the adoption of solar powered irrigation systems and the constraints faced by vegetable farmers in the adoption of solar powered irrigation systems.
A multi-staged sampling technique was used to obtain a sample size of 75 respondents for the study. Data were collected from both secondary and primary sources. Primary data were sources through structured questionnaire administered to farmers. Data were analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Descriptive statistics tools such as frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation. Inferential statistical tool used was Chi-square.
Results obtained showed that majority(73.3%) of farmers were females with a mean age of 46 years having farm size 0.4 to 0.6 hectares with an average farming experience of 9 years and secondary school education as the highest level of education attained. Majority of the farmers continued to use SPIS(73.9%), 60% have partially adopted SPIS, 29.3% only recently started using SPIS, 13.3% were using SPIS on a full scale, 5.3% stopped using SPIS and 2% of the farmers were undecided on whether to continue or discontinue SPIS. All of the farmers (100%) indicated that SPIS is climate/weather friendly, increases water efficiency and conservation and reduces labour cost, 97.3 indicated that it improves crop yield, 92.0% indicated that it reduces reliance on fossil fuel, 89.3% indicated that it lowers energy cost, 84.0% indicated that it reduces pollution and 66.7% indicated that it is flexible and scalable. The factors influencing farmers' adoption of solar powered irrigation systems are cost of acquisition (m= 4.89), availability of government incentives (m= 4.55), availability of technical services (m=4.31) and access to technical support and training (m= 4.23). The constraints encountered by farmers in the adoption of solar powered irrigation systems are high capital investment (m= 4.93), insufficient awareness of the benefits of solar powered radiation systems (m= 4.25), limited access to training and support (m= 4.24) and lack of technical knowledge and skills to operate and maintain the system (m= 3.68). There was a significant relationship between age (X²= 16.061, p= 0.013), educational level (X²= 19.189, p= 0.004) and farm size ( X² = 12.521, p= 0.014) and the factors influencing farmers adoption of solar powered irrigation systems. Results also found a significant relationship between sex (X² = 11.042, p= 0.000) and the constraints affecting farmers adoption of solar powered irrigation. It was concluded that farmers found solar powered irrigation beneficial in improving crop yield but were constrained by high capital investment, limited access to training and support and lack of technical knowledge and skills to maintain and operate the system. It was recommended that assistance should be given to farmers in terms of loans and grants so that they can have access to solar powered irrigation systems.
