Drivers of Adoption of Sustainable Agricultural Practices (SAPs) among Farmers in Akwa-Ibom State, Nigeria

Despite the potential of sustainable agricultural practices (SAPs) to mitigate the problems of soil degradation, low productivity, and the adverse effects of climate change in agricultural production, these challenges persist because the adoption of SAPs remains low among farmers in Nigeria. This study therefore analysed the drivers of the adoption decisions of SAPs (crop rotation, organic manure, mulching, intercropping, and cover-cropping) among farmers in Akwa-Ibom State, Nigeria. Data were collected with the aid of structured questionnaire administered to a cross-section of 288 randomly selected crop farmers in the study area. Data obtained were analysed using descriptive statistics and the Multivariate Probit (MVP) model. Our findings show that crop farmers in the study area are smallholders, with an average of 14 years of formal schooling, 28 years of farming experience, and an average household size of about seven persons. Farmers’ decisions to adopt SAPs exhibited substantial interdependence, mostly complementarity. The drivers of SAPs adoption in the study area comprised formal education, farming experience, household size, off-farm employment, land ownership, farm size, and labour availability. Among these significant drivers, formal education positively influenced the probability of adopting of all the SAPs. Thus, underscoring the crucial role of human capital development in engendering sustainable agricultural production behaviour among farmers in Nigeria