Abstract

Author:
Kolapo Adetomiwa, Adeyeni Adesewa Adebusola

Doi: 10.26480/taec.01.2020.35.42

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License CC BY 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

It has been observed that low adoption of agricultural technologies has crippled the productivity level and increased the poverty level of farmers/processors in Nigeria. The study specifically investigated the welfare impact of adoption of improved oil palm processing technologies in South Western Nigeria using poverty as an indicator. Data were collected through a multistage sampling technique from 360 sampled oil palm processors in the study area. Primary data were used for the study with the aid of a well-structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, Foster, Greer and Thorbecke (FGT) weighted poverty index and Cragg’s (double-hurdle) model was used to analyzed the data collected. The results of the study showed that based on the poverty line created, majority of the adopters of the improved oil palm processing technologies were above the poverty lines which mean they were non-poor. This showed that the adoption of improved oil palm processing technologies in the study area had impacted the welfare of the adopters in South Western Nigeria. Analysis of the determinants of the adoption and intensity of adoption of the improved oil palm processing technologies using cragg’s double-hurdle model showed that in the first hurdle (probit model), variables such as access to credit, farm ownership status, volume of oil palm fruits processed and extension contacts were found to significantly influenced the decision to adopt the improved oil palm processing technologies while in the second hurdle (truncated regression), variables such as age, processor’s perception and training was found to significantly influenced the intensity of use of the improved oil palm processing technologies. Implementation of policies that will increase the adoption of the improved oil palm processing technologies which will subsequently leads to improved welfare of the oil palm processors should be pursued by the government, agencies and stakeholders in Nigeria.