ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF SOIL CONSERVATION PRACTICES AMONG CROP FARMERS IN ENUGU STATE, NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

The broad objective of the study was to analyze the economics of soil conservation practices in Enugu State. This study employed multistage random sampling technique for selecting the respondents. First stage involved simple random selection of one local government area from each of the three (3) agricultural zones. Then three (3) farming communities were selected from each of the three selected local government areas. This gave a total of nine (9) communities for the study. Secondly, ten (10) farm households were randomly selected from each of the three farming communities, making a total of ninety (90) farm households.  Well structured and pre- tested questionnaire, personal observation and focus group discussion were used for data collection. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistical,  multinomial logit  model, partial budget and a composite benefit- cost simulation model. The study showed that most of the farmers adopted more than one soil conservation practice. The conservation practices adopted most by the farmers included; animal and green manure application (100% and 85.55% respectively), cover crop planting (70%), construction of erosion control structures (57.77%), multiple cropping (45.55%) and reduced tillage (40%), incorporation of crop residues ( 26.66%), mulching ( 23.33%), crop rotation ( 21.11%), fallowing ( 14.44%), across slope-cultivation (12.22%), planting of perennial grass barriers (11.11%) and vegetation planting (8.88%s). Majority of the farmers were males (75.56%), the mean age of the farmers was forty six years, and about eighty seven percent (87%) of the farmers had a house hold size of six to ten persons. Majority  of  the  farmers  (725%)  used  family  labour,  and  53.35%  of  the  farm  land  was individually owned  by the  farmers.  An  increase  in  farm size  showed  significant  (P<0.05) increase in the application of green manure (z = 2.25) and crop rotation (z = 2.08). Similarly, increase in house hold size showed a significant (P<0.05) increase in the construction of erosion control structures with a 2.54 magnitude of the z-value. An increase in farm size and sex showed a significant (P<0.05) increase in the use of crop rotation (z = 2.31 and 2.75 respectively). Sex also showed a significant (P<0.05)  on the used of crop residues with a 1.96 magnitude of the z- value. A benefit cost analysis estimated the cost of soil conservation as N 1,462,300 and the benefit of soil conservation as N 3,246,800 with a net profit of N 1,784,500 and a net present value of N 37,167,285. High capital and labour demand (100%), insecure land tenure (98%), high risk and stability of practice (96.7%), poor policy support by government (95.6%), inadequate access to information and extension services (95.6%), poor returns to land, capital and labour (81.1%), perception and values of practices (51.1%) and perceived attributes of an innovation (35.6%), are some of the factors that limited the used of soil conservation practices by farmers in the study area. Granted that soil conservation practices are expensive, the benefits exceed the cost and it is the only option open to the farmers facing degraded farm lands. Owing to the fact that the farmers are poor and cannot meet up with the financial demands of soil conservation, the government should assist them in terms of financial subsidies and soft loans to enable them meet up with the financial challenges of soil conservation. Land ownership policies and property right information should be made available and accessible to the farmers, since most of the farmers are afraid on investing heavily on their family lands.

CHAPTER ONE

1.1    Background Information

INTRODUCTION

According to the United Nation report (1984), Land-use management is the world’s most important environmental and productivity problem. Land degradation, especially soil erosion, soil nutrient depletion and soil moisture stress, is a major problem confronting many African countries (13th International Soil Conservation Organisation Conference (ISCO), 2004).

Environmental degradation in National, State and Community levels in Nigeria is now a critical issue posing serious threats to the populace (Ezemonye, 2007). The major processes of land degradation are physical (in the form of soil erosion, compaction, and crusting and iron pan formation) (Kathleen, 1993). In Nigeria, one of the most serious problems of land-management is  soil erosion. Soil erosion constitutes one  of the  greatest  environmental and  productivity problems, causing an estimated 30 million tonnes of soil loss annually. Although erosion is a natural process human land use policies also have an effect on erosion, especially industrial agriculture, deforestation, and urban sprawl (Montogomery, 2008, Kotke, 2007). Most of the severe and frightening soil erosion problems and catastrophes in Nigeria are found in many parts of South Eastern region where population densities and resource pressure in these parts rank among the highest in rural Africa. There have been several reports on this ravaging situation in the Southeast, “the conditions, under which our kith and kin have to make their daily living in Nigeria, are hellish and inhuman,” (Orabuchi, 2006).

Soil degradation is a serious problem in Nigeria (World Bank, 1990). Deforestation, soil erosion, desertification, soil salinization, alkalinization and water-logging, form different but often interrelated aspects of soil degradation (Chukwuemeka Okoye, 2009). In Nigeria, soil

degradation affects about 50 million people and leads to the greatest loss of Gross National

Product (US $3000 million per year) relative to other environmental Problems (World Bank,

1990). Recent years have witnessed a rise of serious concern about the environmental risks associated with modern agricultural practices. Accelerated soil erosion is one of the  major constraints to agricultural production in many parts of Enugu State. Therefore, sustainable and renewed  resource  management  practices  need  address  the  widespread  land  degradation, declining soil fertility, unreliable rainfall and even desertification, in a context of global climate change (Rezvanfer, Samiee & Faham, 2009). Similarly, such biological and mechanical soil conservation practices are currently applied by farmers in Enugu State, including; mulching, cover crops cultivation, terracing, integrated cropping and timely use of fertilizers.

Soil conservation refers to the use of measures to protect the soil, the aim of maintaining or improving its natural fertility (FAO, 2001). Soil conservation also refers to a temporary or permanent increase in the productive capacity of the land or its potential for environmental management. In economic terms, “productive capacity” is the attainable annual output of product yield,  natural vegetation and water flow, at  a fixed level of non-land inputs. Conservation Agriculture (CA) ( sometimes referred to as “agricultural environmental management”), can be defined as “a concept for resource-saving agricultural crop production that strives to achieve acceptable profits together with high and sustained production levels while concurrently conserving the  environment” (FAO,  2007).    At  the  same  time  conservation  is  the  use  of resources in a manner that safely maintains a resource that can be used by humans. Conservation has become critical on the fact that the world population has increased over the years and more food needs to be produced every year (FAO, 2007).

Conservation agriculture (CA) aims to achieve sustainable and profitable agriculture and subsequently aims at improved livelihoods of farmers through the application of the three CA principles: minimal soil disturbance, permanent soil cover and crop rotations. Conservation agriculture holds tremendous potential for all sizes of farms and agro-ecological systems, but its adoption is perhaps most urgently required by smallholder farmers, especially those facing acute labour shortages. It is a way to combine profitable agricultural production with environmental concerns and sustainability and it has been proven to work in a variety of agro ecological zones and farming systems. Conservation agriculture has been perceived by practitioners as a valid tool for  Sustainable  Land  Management  (SLM).  It  is  because  of  this  promise  that  Food  and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) is actively involved in promoting CA, especially in developing and emerging economies (FAO, 2010).

Many traditional farming systems in Africa have characteristics closely resembling CA systems. Tillage is often limited to planting in holes, mulching is practiced (using weeds, crop residues, grasses or green manure), as is direct planting with a hand hoe and a wide diversity of crops and trees are grown. In many commercial agricultural exploitations, conservation (or reduced) tillage and direct planting, combined with the application of herbicides has been widely practiced in Eastern and Southern Africa for some time (Biamah, 2000). In Zimbabwe for example, about 75% of the commercial farmers practice some form of conservation tillage. One of the first “No Till Clubs” was formed by a group of commercial farmers in KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa back in the 1970s (Fowler, 2002). Cover crops have been the subject of research for many years, as have more suitable crop rotations and ways to better integrate crop and livestock production. However, the impact and the practice of these techniques by smallholder farmers in Africa are still very limited.

Increasingly, labour shortages are seriously affecting the availability of farm labour in Africa. In many countries, the rural population is steadily being reduced through migration to urban centres. This particularly concerns the younger male population, meaning that those with the best potential for heavy physical work are no longer working on the land. The situation is being further aggravated by the HIV/AIDS pandemic that is so tragically striking many parts of the African continent. As a result, many African households are now headed by women who are experiencing tremendous pressure as they have to not only care for the household and family, but run all the farm operations at the same time. For these and other reasons, it is now becoming even more essential that farming methods that conserve resources, reduce human labour requirements  and  significantly  improve  food  security  be  adopted  (Benites,  Ashburner  & Theodor, 2002).

1.2 Problem Statement

The  effort  to  reconcile  the  three  objectives  of  increasing  agricultural  production, reducing poverty and ensuring sustainable use of the natural resources has been a continuing battle in many developing countries. Many developing countries are confronted with problems of increasing population pressure on an already degrading land resource, worsening poverty, and declining per  capita  food  production.  With  shrinking  land  frontier,  increase  in  agricultural production need to come from improvements in land productivity (Eicher, 1994). However, significant increase in agricultural productivity can not be attained if the land resource base is degrading. Hence, the sustainable use of the land resource constitutes the key constraint in agricultural growth in these countries. Land degradation, especially human induced soil degradation in the form of soil erosion, nutrient depletion and soil moisture stress, is particularly very severe in Enugu State (Eboh, Larsen, Oji, Achike, Ujah, Oduh, Amakom & Nzeh, 2006).

In present day Enugu State, increased population densities, growing food and market demands, urbanization, proximity to major road infrastructure, soil conditions and deterioration in quality of land for agricultural purposes have brought about reduced agricultural productivity. These changes have resulted to increasing socio-economic pressure on land and differential access to farmland and intensification of cultivation with far reaching consequences for land-use management practices and the sustainability of the agricultural system. Severe soil fertility and productivity decline, ecological damages including soil erosion losses, and floods are some of the out comes of the uncontrolled land-use and agricultural intensification in the state. These problems might worsen in future due to the fragile, heavily weathered and leached nature of the soil. This situation can only be corrected by the incorporation of improved soil conservation practices in the farming system through acceleration of farmer’s adoption rates of the recommended innovation (Anaeto, Mattews-Njoku & Onu, 2005)

However, both intensification and conservation might not be easy to combined, as farmers operate under a variety of constraints related to capital and labour, availability or accessibility of inputs, lack of knowledge, land tenure, risk and stability, access to information and extension services and policy support. Especially conservation measures often reduce short-term profits as they require extra labour, land or capital (FAO, 2007).

Improved nutrient cycling can only be achieved through the application of organic inputs and the retention of crop residues (Swift & Anderson, 1992). However many farmers find it difficult to return crop residue to the soil leading to declines in organic matter. Unfortunately most of these crop residues and other weeds are burnt or deposited along road side and farm land boundaries. Avoidances of biomass burning are a management practice that helps reverse soil erosion trends (Hains & Uren, 1990). Apart from soil erosion, there are the hazards of excessive

sandiness in the Ezeagu Udi corridor, and rain fed massive floods of Uzo Uwani area. Deforestation constitutes a man made hazard that has adversely affected ecological balance and agricultural prospects in the state (Nwafor, 2003).

Meeting the present and future needs of the population in terms of food, fibre, shelter, etc.  without  destroying the  soil and  water  resource base  and  the  environment, remains an important  concern.  To  avert  food  crisis,  it  is  expected  that  the  rate  of  food  production corresponds with the pace of population growth. As population increases and economy grows, the competition for the limited supply of land and water intensifies and so conflicts among users (Ahaneku, 2010).

1.3 Objectives of the Study

The broad objective of the study was to analyze the economics of soil conservation practices in Enugu State. The specific objectives were to:

i.    identify soil conservation practices common among farmers in Enugu State.

ii.  analyse  the  effects  of  farmers’  socio-economic  characteristics  on  their  use  of  soil conservation practices.

iii. determine costs and benefits of soil conservation practices.

iv.  identify farmers’ constraints in the adoption of soil conservation practices.

v.   make recommendation for improving soil conservation practices based on the findings.

1.4 Research Hypothesis

The study was guided by the null hypothesis derived from specific objective:

H01:    There is no relationship between the socio-economic characteristics of the farmers and the type of conservation practices used by the farmers.

1.5 Justification of the Study

Approximately 40% of the world’s agricultural land is seriously degraded (UN, 2008). According to the United Nation report (2009), an area of fertile soil the size of Ukraine is lost every year because of drought, deforestation and climate change. In Africa, if current trends of soil degradation continue the continent might be able to feed just 25% of its population by 2025, according to UN’s Ghana-based Institute for Natural Resources in Africa (UN, 2008).

Man-made damage is a kind of economic action itself and excessive management for land resources. It originates from recognizations and social economy. According to the theory of environmental economy, the excessive management for resources is actually short of recognization about the exterior of economic action. The exterior of economic action indicates the influence that production and consumption of a unit give those of anther unit. If the influence is positive, we call it positive economy. Otherwise, we call it negative economy. Development of erosion intensity due to man-made “Four illegalities” is typical negative economy. Main objects of environmental economy are  to  try its  best  to  weaken and  eliminate  negative economy. According to the basic principles of environmental economy, the most simple and basic way of abolishing externalism is to change externalism into internalism .We can realize this transformation only through improving the cost of economic action and the utilizing cost of resources. If the building of roads and factories worsen the environment of soil erosion and promote the development of soil erosion, we may increase a sum of money to restore the prime environment .The transformation isn’t difficult to realize when the economic action is caused by government or big group. But when the unreasonable utilization of resources is caused by peasants who lived in mountains, the transformation is difficult to come true (ISCO, 2002).

Soil is a very important constituent, and is developed by a long process of weathering and disintegration of rocks which turn into sand or clay. The clay like fertile soil provides home to organisms like earthworms, beetles, ants which live in it. Soil provides anchorage to plants and trees. The plants and trees provide home to birds and some animals. The crops growing on the soil provide us food and clothes. Thus, soil defines the quality of life around it, which is why the practice of soil conservation is important (Ahaneku, 2010). Studies on soil erosion suggest that increased rainfall amounts and intensities have led to greater rates of erosion. Thus, if rainfall amounts and intensities increase in many parts of the world as expected, erosion will also increase, unless amelioration measures are taken.

The soils of Enugu State are mainly ferralitic and hydromorphic together with a relatively more fertile lithosols in the escarpment zone. These soils rank amongst the poorest Nigerian soils because of their low natural fertility. Furthermore, they are highly leached and, though they are light  and easily worked, they are  incapable of supporting the high-density rural and urban populations under rudimentary techniques of cultivation. More so, soil deterioration within the area has reached catastrophic proportions and the diminishing agricultural outputs have pushed most of the farmers in the villages to give up farming entirely. Thus, the food requirements of the state must of necessity be transported over long distances from the food surplus parts of Ebonyi, Delta and Middle Belt/Northern States (Nwafor, 2003).

The causes of land degradation in the state can be grouped in to proximate and underlying factors.  The  proximate  causes  of  land  degradation include  cultivation of steep  slopes  and erodible soils, low vegetation cover of the soil, burning of dung and crop residues, declining fallow periods, and limited application of organic or inorganic fertilizers. The underlying causes of land degradation include such factors as population pressure; poverty; high costs or limited access of farmers to  fertilizers,  fuel and  animal feed;  insecure  land  tenure;  limited  farmer knowledge of improved integrated soil and water management measures; and limited or lack of access to credit. The proximate causes of land degradation are the symptoms of inappropriate land management practices as conditioned by the underlying factors. Hence, efforts for soil conservation need to address the underlying causes primarily, as focusing on the proximate causes would mean addressing the symptoms of the problem rather than the real causes.

Land degradation is now recognized as a major environmental problem and, globally, millions of dollars are now being spent annually on soil and water conservation programs. Many success stories can be found among these programs but, overall, progress has been slow and there  have  been  many  failures.  There  is  an  apparent  reluctance  of  land  users  to  adopt conservation-effective practices, and it is usually not clear why practices that have appeared so promising in trials have not been accepted by them, or have been rejected after a short time. Attention has therefore turned to the land users themselves, rather than the technology. Land users are  now much more involved in the process of identifying the problems, developing practical solutions and applying the necessary measures in the field (Paul, Samran, Enters & Sanders, 2000).

It appeared that although progress is being made in many ways, there was one major shortcoming: even where extension services are effective in fully involving land users in the process of problem identification and the development of acceptable solutions, progress may still be very slow. The reason for this is that land users may simply not be able to change their practices because of economic, social or political reasons that are beyond their control. To overcome this problem, programs have been using a variety of incentives and over the years a wide range has been developed and used. Information on the values of soil conservation benefits can aid in designing more cost-effective programs and evaluating accomplishments of programs, policies, and practices (Hansen & Ribaudo, 2008), that are more acceptable and used by farmers.
Information from such benefits of soil conservation as real winners is often spread without much effort through informal communication

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