TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION, POST-HARVEST LOSSES AND AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY IN NIGERIA
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Nigeria’s population is increasing and it is estimated to reach 400 million by 2050 with
inevitable increase in the demand for food. With this population growth, the likelihood of
a looming food crisis remains unavoidable except agricultural productivity is enhanced
through technology adoption to match population growth. This study empirically examined
the impact of technology adoption on agricultural productivity in Nigeria, utilising Wave
4 (2018/2019) of the Living Standards Measurement Studies (LSMS), Integrated Survey
on Agriculture (ISA). The objective of the study is to investigate the impact of the adoption
of identified elements of technology (such as ICT, fertiliser, tractorisation, herbicides,
pesticides and certified crops) on agricultural productivity; examine the point(s) on the
value chain where the deployment of technology is significant and the impact of the
adoption of identified indicators of technology on post-harvest losses in Nigeria. The study
engaged the descriptive statistics, the logit regression, the Propensity Score Matching
(PSM) and the Multinomial Logit Regression (MLR) in analysing the data. The findings
showed that technology adoption among farming household heads in Nigeria is relatively
low, with only 31.92 percent adoption rate. The age of the household heads, location of the
household heads (whether rural or urban), membership of a cooperative society, and
educational level of the household heads are the significant determinants of technology
adoption among farming households in Nigeria. There exists a positive and significant
impact of adoption of the identified components of technology on household agricultural
productivity in Nigeria. This implies that household heads who adopt technology have a
higher probability of experiencing a higher level of agricultural productivity compared to
non-adopters of technology. The findings also showed that information and
telecommunication technology (ICT) deployment is significant for all the actors on the
agricultural value chain, and that the influence of ICT is statistically significant in reducing
post-harvest losses in Nigeria. Based on the findings, the study concluded that to increase
agricultural productivity, enhance efficient value chain, and reduce post-harvest losses,
technology adoption is essential. The study recommended that there is a need for the
government to improve support mechanisms for technology adoption. For example,
concerning internet access, there should be support for public internet access points and
agribusiness training for farmers to foster adoption of technology to improve productivity.
In addition, rate of adoption will increase if more farmers are aware of the importance of
various components of technology to drive productivity. Therefore, government at all
levels should strengthen their efforts to encourage farmers through the extension agents,
among others, on the need to adopt various components of technology so as to increase
productivity.
Keywords
HB Economic Theory