DOI: 10.36347/sjavs.2016.v03i01.013

Pages: 66-71

The study delved into the examination of the adoption level of farm machines by crops’ farmers in Delta State, Nigeria. The specific objectives were to: describe the socioeconomic characteristics of the respondents; ascertain the level of use of farm machine by farmers in Delta State; identify the different type of machines used by farmers in the study area; and to compute the machine use index of farmers in the area. A multi-stage sampling procedure was employed to obtain data from 720 crop farmers with the aid of a well-structured questionnaire. Various descriptive and inferential statistical tools were used for data analysis. The results of the study succinctly portrayed that majority of the respondents sparingly used machines in their farm activities as depicted by the high proportion of respondents with low machine use index (65%). From the findings it was recommended that farmers should be sensitized on the benefits of using farm machines on their farms and that machine hiring centres should be established in the study area to rent machines to farmers at reasonable costs.