ASSESSMENT OF MECHANIZATION CHALLENGES OF PEASANT FARMERS IN GBOKO LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, BENUE STATE OF NIGERIA

This study assesses the mechanization challenges of peasant farmers in Gboko Local Government Area of Benue state in Nigeria. The peasant farmers produce over 90 % of Nigeria's agricultural output and these peasant dwell in the rural areas wherein about 60 % of the population live. The vast majority of these farmers have serious challenges in accessing modern inputs and other productive resources, including education and they are unlikely to have access to assortment of fertilizers, hybrid seeds and irrigation. This study employed a multi stage sampling techniques to collect information on the socio-economic characteristics of the farmers and available machinery. Analysis revealed that farmers in the study area were relatively low educated. Most of the farm sizes in the study area are in the range of 1-5 ha, most of the needed modern machinery were not available and many of the farm operations were carried out manually, that is, land clearing (70.56 %), tillage (91.77 %), planting (78.79 %), fertilizer application (84.85 %), weeding (65.80 %), and harvesting (80.52 %). This study also show that majority of respondents were smallholder farmers who were often too poor to employ the available machinery. Despite this ugly situation, over 75 % of the foods consumed in this country come from these peasant farmers in rural areas. The current world food situation, socio-economic and population displacement as result of internal and external conflict of all kinds, this situation of peasantry should not be allowed to continue if the population must be salvaged from hunger.