Assessment of Challenges Limiting the Use of Manure among Smallholder Farmers - A Comparative Study of Quzhou County of China and Kwara State of Nigeria

Abstract

The intensive use and long-term dependence on chemical fertilizer may have negative effects on plant growth, the soil and the environment, but the application of manure could alleviate these problems. However, farmers encounter challenges in the utilization of manure. This study investigated the factors limiting the use of manure among small-holder farmers in Quzhou county of China and Kwara state of Nigeria. A structured questionnaire was used to gather information about challenges, level of use, perception about the use of manure and socio-economic characteristics from 120 small-holder from each of the study areas selected through a three-stage sampling technique. Data obtained were subjected to both descriptive and inferential statistics. The descriptive statistics used include mean, standard deviation, frequency and percentage while Pearson product moment correlation coefficient (PPMC) analysis was used to test the hypothesis of the study. Based on data collected, results shows that very few smallholder farmers (17.5%) apply manure on their farms in Quzhou County while majority of about (90%) farmers use manure in Kwara state. The study also found that majority of the farmers in the study areas were above the youthful and active age of 40years with 58.3% and 68% in kwara and Quzhou respectively. Also, vast majority of about 80% and 98% in Kwara and Quzhou respectively are smallholder farmers who farm on between 0.10 to 2ha farmland, average age of 50.2years. The result from the study further shows that the farmers have a favorable perception and a fair knowledge about the use of manure in the study areas. The leading challenges found in China were: that preference for chemical fertilizer, offensive odour, slow nutrient release, difficulty in transporting (due to bulkiness of manure), low nutrient content and lack of knowledge on how to use manure ranked 1^st-6^th respectively while stress of drying and composting, difficulty in transporting, lack of knowledge on how to use, slow nutrient release, low nutrient and lack of storage space were the leading challenges limiting the use of manure found among farmers in Kwara state of Nigeria ranked 1^st to 6^th respectively. Finally, the result of two hypothesis tested revealed that ownership of livestock and access to extension service have some significant effect on the level of use of manure among farmers in Quzhou County of China while only farm size have a significant effect on the use of manure among farmers in Kwara state, Nigeria and only level of education has a significant effect on the perception about the use of manure among the farmers in Quzhou county, China while Age, farm size, livestock ownership, access to extension service and Household size were found to have significant effect on the perception of farmers in Kwara state of Nigeria about manure.  Based on the following findings, it was recommended that researchers should look into a way of reducing bulkiness of organic fertilizer for easy transportation and government should improve extension service delivery and training of farmers on handling, composting and application of manure.

Keywords: Manure, Challenges, Perception, Knowledge, Transportation Nigeria, China

DOI: 10.7176/JNSR/13-6-02

Publication date:March 31^st 2022