Assessment of Groundwater Use by Crop Farmers in Ebonyi State, Nigeria.

Abstract

In this study, a critical assessment of the use of groundwater by crop farmers was done. The objectives of this study were to describe the socio-economic characteristics of crop farmers in the study area, assess the cost of groundwater used by crop farmers in the study area, examine crop farmers perception of groundwater use in the study area, determine socio-economic factors influencing use of groundwater by crop farmers in the study area and identify constraint factors mitigating crop farmers use of groundwater in the study area. Multistage random sampling technique was used to select a total of eighty (80) respondents used for the study. Data for the study was collected with the use of well-structured questionnaires. The statistical tools that were used include descriptive statistics such as percentages, mean, relative frequencies, and inferential statistics such as probit regression model. The result of the socio-economic distributions of the respondents according to their age showed that the majority (57.5%) of the household heads were within the age range of 21-40 years. The average age was 43 years. The distribution of the respondents according to marital status showed that the majority (80%) of the respondents were married, while (12.5%) of them were widowed and (7.5%) were single. According to household size, greater proportion (41.25%) of the respondents had household sizes of between 1 and 5 persons. In terms of years spent in school by the respondents, the average years spent in school was 9 years. The result in terms of gender also indicated that the majority (85%) of the respondents were males while (15.5%) were females. In terms of experience, the distribution of the respondents showed that highest proportion of respondents (36.25%) had farming experience of 6 to 10 years. The average year of farming experience was 11 years. With regard to membership of cooperative society, it was found that greater proportion of the respondents (66.25%) belonged to a cooperative society while (33.75%) did not belong to any cooperative society. Findings from the analysis also showed that the average total cost of groundwater technology incurred was 49, rejected. Lack of capital and high cost of equipment was identified as chief constraint to use of groundwater. Based on these findings it was recommended that accessible sources of capital should be made available to the crop farmers and prospective investors in the study area, so as to enable them expand their production and take advantage of opportunities as they come and there should be training and re-training on irrigation and groundwater harvesting techniques among the crop farmers in the area, through better extension service delivery, for better harvesting