Implications Of Manual Farming On The Health Of Rural Farmers In Ifedore Local Government Area, Ondo State, Nigeria.

Abstract

The study assessed manual farming and its perceived implications on the health of rural farmers. The study ascertained farming practices performed manually, determined the attitude of respondents towards manual farming and determined access of farmers to agricultural extension services. The study was carried out in Ifedore Local Government Area of Ondo State Nigeria. One hundred and fourteen respondents were randomly selected for this study with the aid of pre tested structured questionnaire. Chi-square was used to test the stated hypothesis. Waist pain ranked first as the greatest implication of manual farming to the farmers based on spearman ranking. Finance was the challenge faced by most of the respondents. The chi-square analysis showed that there was significant relationship between the age of the respondents and manual farming (÷2=170.5; p-value of 0.000.) also between marital status and manual farming (÷2=246.1; p value 0.000). The study concluded that manual farming has serious implications on the health of the farmers in which waist pain ranked highest with mean value of 4.29. The study recommended that the government effort should be channelled towards making technologies available for the farmers at subsidized rate. Private-Public partnership in agricultural credit scheme should be encouraged to assist in funding mechanized farm operations.