Environmentally Sustainable Farm Management Strategies Adopted by Compound Farmers in Mbaitoli Local Government Area, Imo State Nigeria

This study identified environmentally sustainable farm management strategies adopted by compound farmers in Mbaitoli Local Government Area Imo State. Specifically, it described the socio-economic characteristics of the compound farmers in the study area, identified the environmentally sustainable strategy adopted by compound farmers, identified compound farming ventures that are mostly adopted, assessed the contributions of compound farming to household food security in the study area and examined factors affecting compound farming in the study area. Of the nine communities in the study area, five were randomly selected for the study. Snowball sampling technique was used in selecting 100 households for the study. Data collection was done using questionnaire and interview schedule and analysed using descriptive statistics. Results shows that organic pesticides (70%), mixed farming (71%), cover-cropping (84%), crop rotation (79%) and mulching (74%) are the major environmentally sustainable farm management practices adopted by compound farmers in the study area. The major compound farming ventures adopted by households were crop production (88%) and poultry (50%). Income generation (Mean = 3.43), reduction of family expenditure on food (Mean = 3.45) and assured availability of food varieties in the family (Mean = 3.35) were the major contributions of compound farming to household food security. The major factors affecting compound farming in the study area were diseases and pests' infestation on compound farm (Mean = 3.40), labour intensive nature of compound farming (mean = 3.40) and lack of irrigation facilities (mean = 3.38). It was recommended that extension agents should play leading role in conveying innovations and inventions that could enhance compound farming activities of farmers as regards pesticides and insecticides as well as irrigation facilities