Adoption of Urea Deep Placement Recommended Practices among Rice Farmers in Niger State, Nigeria

This study assessed the factors influencing adoption of UDP recommended practices by rice farmers in Niger State, Nigeria. A total of 86 rice farmers were selected for the study using multi-stage sampling procedure. Structured questionnaire was used for data collection. Descriptive statistics and multiple regressions were used for data analysis. Results revealed that majority (60.5%) of the rice farmers were male and the respondents' mean age was 49 years. The mean household size was 7 people whileless than half (48.9%) of the respondents had no formal education. The average farm size cultivated by the rice farmers was 0.8ha and all (100.0%) the respondents had no access to credit facilitates2015/2016 cropping season.The significant variables were sex, education, rice farming experience, farm size, paddy output, training and complexity. Constraints hindering adoption of UDP recommended practices were lack of credit facilities, labourious nature of line transplanting and USG application as well as limited USG supply, time spent on application of USG, inadequate training and health status of the rice farmers. It was recommended that government should ensure that credit facilities are made available and accessible to rice farmers in the study area. Also, trainings on UDP recommended practices should be a focal point for the government, non-governmental organizations and private sector actors to deal with the inadequate knowledge of UDP recommended practices among the rice farmers.