Determinants of Land Management Practices among Food Crop Farmers in North Central Nigeria

Abstract

The study examines the factors influencing the use of Land Management practices among food crop farmers in North central, Nigeria. In so doing, Data were collected using a multistage sampling technique for the selection of states, local governments, communities/ villages and lastly farming household heads. Out of 400 questionnaire administered, only 345 with useful information were used for the analyses.  Factors influencing the use of land management and conservation practices by the farming household head were determined using multinomial logit model. Variables that significantly explain the use across different land management practices at different levels of significance were age of household head, levels of education, household size, value of livestock owned, off farm income, tenancy security, farm size, distance from plot to residence, distance from plot to the nearest market and distance from plot to all weathered road. Findings emanating from this study show that both traditional and modern land management practices coexist with the sampled household head giving multiple responses to their use. Classification under a particular land management practices implies the one that the household head has preference for, the determinants of which are combination of human, physical and financial capitals, others include parcel/ plot level factor as well as institutional factors.

Keywords: Determinants, Land management, food crop farmers, North Central Nigeria