THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF IMPROVED AGRICULTURAL TECHNOLOGY ON CASSAVA PRODUCTIVITY

This paper assessed the economic impact of improved agricultural technologies on cassava productivity in Kogi State, Nigeria. The results are drawn from a household survey covering the agricultural season of 2009/2010. The data obtained from interview schedule was subjected to descriptive and inferential statistical analysis. Descriptive statistics for this study include frequency, percentages and means. The hypothesis was tested using chi- square. The result shows that 79.33% of the respondents adopt the use of improved variety within the period under study. The analysis done on the revenue of the respondents before and after the adoption of the improved agricultural technology shows that revenue of farmers after the adoption of innovations are better off than revenue generated before adoption by N27,750 on the average per farmer. This result shows that the impact of improved agricultural technologies on cassava productivity is positive. Additionally, the results attest to the importance of increasing agricultural productivity in tandem with improvements on the adoption and use of improved agricultural technologies and its availability to the reach of farmers with the farmers’ ability to store food. This findings is consistence with Idachaba and Ayoola, (2015) who observed that improved agricultural helped in increasing agricultural productivity.