ADOPTION OF INTEGRATED SOIL MANAGEMENT AND WATER CONSERVATION PRACTICES AMONG VEGETABLE FARMERS IN JOS METROPOLIS OF PLATEAU STATE, NIGERIA

This study examined the adoption of Integrated Soil Management and Water Conservation Techniques (ISM and WCT) among the vegetable farmers in Jos North and Jos South LGAs of Plateau State, Nigeria . Multi stage sampling techniques were used to select 312 vegetable farmers. Primary data were collected using a structured questionnaires and analysed using descriptive statistics and adoption index (AI). Result showed that 64.2% of the respondents were male with mean age of 44years. Also, majority (68.6%) of them were married with average household size of 7 persons. Findings indicate that mulching (3.7), irrigation (3.7), organic farming (3.6) and crop rotation (3.6) were the highly adopted practices by the vegetable farmers with their mean scores greater than 3.00. The result also indicate that vegetable farmers were low (50%) and medium adopter (50%) of ISM and WCT, respectively. The study concluded that the vegetable farmers adopted mulching, organic farming, crop rotation cover cropping, irrigation and drainage as ISM and WCT in the study area. To increase level of adoption it is recommended that, agricultural practitioners should mobilize smallholder farmers and train them for successful implementation of ISM and WCT practices.