ASSESSMENT OF MECHANIZATION PROBLEMS OF PEASANT FARMERS IN IREPODUN LOCALGOVERNMENT AREA, KWARA STATE OF NIGERIA

More than 70% of the working adult population of Nigeria is employed in the agricultural sector directly and indirectly. Over 90% of Nigeria's agricultural output comes from peasant farmers who dwell in the rural areas where 60% of the population live. The vast majority of these farmers has limited access to modern inputs and other productive resources and is unlikely to have access to pesticides, fertilizers, hybrid seeds and irrigation. The successful development of farm mechanization is determined primarily by the transition process from manual tools through animal-drawn implements and finally to the application of mechanical power technologies, which will improve efficiency time, labour and productivity of peasant farmers and thereby enhance food security of a Nigeria. This study investigates constraints to agricultural mechanization in Irepodun Local Government Area (LGA), Kwara State, Nigeria. This study employed a multi stage sampling techniques to collect information on the socioeconomic characteristics, agricultural machines available and equipment used for specific farm operations. Analysis revealed that farmers in the study area are middle-aged and are relatively uneducated. Most of the farm sizes in the study area range from 1-5 ha and many of the farm operations were carried out manually; land clearing (93%), tillage (83%), planting (88.54%), fertilizer application (97.5%), weeding (98.7%) and harvesting (97.5%). This study also shows that majority of respondents were smallholder farmers who are often too poor to employ modern tools, such as tractors and plows even though over 80% of the foods consumed in this country come from these peasant farmers in rural areas. This confirms that agricultural mechanization is still beyond the reach of the peasant farmers in rural areas.