Analysis of Adoption of Improved Maize Production Technology among Farmers in Southern Borno, Nigeria

This study assesses the adoption of Improved Maize Production Technology among farmers in Southern Borno, Nigeria. The specific objectives were to analyze the relationship between socio-economic characteristics of the respondents and their adoption of improved maize technology and to determine innovation utilization and its effect on farmer’s production. Data for the study were obtained from 360 respondents selected through multi-stage sampling procedure. Both descriptive and inferential statistical techniques were used to analyze the data. Gross margin was used to measure the profit of farm enterprises (effect of farmer’s production) before and after utilizing the agricultural innovation, while Regression analysis (OLS) was used to establish relationship between socio-economic characteristics of the respondents and adoption of agricultural innovation. The result of the profitability analysis revealed that the gross margin per hectare of respondents before adoption of agricultural innovation was ?59, 009.44, while the gross margin per hectare of respondents after adoption of agricultural innovation stood at ?76, 003.43, translating to 29% increase in gross margin of the respondents. Level of education (P< 0.01), and gender (P< 0.01) were the most important factors that influenced adoption of agricultural innovation among farmers in the study area. Farm size (P< 0.01), age of respondents (P < 0.01), extension contact (P < 0.01), radio ownership (P< 0.01) and cosmopoliteness (P < 0.05) were also important in influencing adoption of agricultural innovation by farmers in the study area. Based on the findings of this study, it was recommended that farmers should be given more easy access to credit. In light of this, there is need to link farmers to sources of credit given its importance in the utilization of improved agricultural technology. Key words: Adoption, Farmers, Technology, Southern Borno, Improved Maize.