Abstract

Benjamin Okpukpara

This study was motivated because of low adoption of cassava production technologies in rural areas of Nigeria. The supply of cassava product, which is major staple food in Nigeria has not match up with the demand especially now the government is trying to increase her non-oil export through cassava export. It expected that increase in adoption of modern production technologies will scale-up cassava production and reduce poverty and increase food safety net in Nigeria. The study was carried out with random selected rural farmers. Data were collected and analyzed with combination of descriptive and univariate probit regression model. The major findings are that though credit is important in adoption of modern cassava technologies, credit from informal institutions appears to be the major influencing factor in adoption of modern cassava production technologies. Education and availability of modern input in the rural areas are also important variables that affect adoption. In view of this, increasing financial base of informal institutions and vigorous rural education campaign and increasing availability of the technologies through rural community based organizations are among the recommendations made.