Abstract

Soil conservation is a set of management strategies for prevention of soil being eroded from the earth’s surface or becoming chemically altered by overuse, salinization acidification, or other chemical soil contamination. Soil conservation technique is the application of processes to the solution of soil management problems. This research assessed the level of crop farmers’ awareness of soil conservation, described the socioeconomic characteristics of the crop farmers, and evaluated factors that determine or influence their adoption of soil conservation techniques in Ikenne local government area of Ogun State. One hundred (100) crop farmers were selected randomly for the research study but out of all the 100 questionnaires administered, only 97 were found useful for analysis. The demographic data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics, while the logit regression model was used to evaluate the factors determining crop farmers’ adoption of soil conservation techniques. The descriptive analysis result showed that 61.9% of the respondents had farming as their major occupation, 87.6% had farmlands of their own, 38.1% belonged to farmers’ groups/associations, and 71.1% were aware of soil conservation techniques. On the other hand, the logit result showed that age, ownership of farmland, farm size, and awareness of soil conservation were significantly associated with the adoption of soil conservation techniques at 1% level of significance (P < 0.01), while household size significantly Influenced adoption of soil conservation techniques at 10% level of significance (P < 0.1). Based on the research findings, it is recommended that better educational services should be provided to guide and educate the younger generation of crop farmers to increase their awareness and interest to soil conservation techniques in the study area, as this has a significant effect on crop productivity. Also, the government should ensure the participation of crop farmers in groups/associations to enhance their awareness to soil conservation methods, thereby encouraging better soil management practices. Keywords