INFLUENCE OF AGRICULTURAL MECHANIZATION ON CROP PRODUCTION

 The study was carried out to determine the Influence of Agricultural Mechanization on Crop Production in Bauchi and Yobe States. Five specific objectives and five research questions were stated and five null hypotheses were formulated based on the research questions. The population for the study comprised of contact farmers from the five Agricultural Development Programme Zones in Bauchi and Yobe States. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to select three hundred and sixty-eight contact farmers. Questionnaire was used as instrument to collect data from the respondents. A four rating scale questionnaire was used for the respondents to indicate their degree of agreement or disagreement. The formulated null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 levels of significance. Percentage was used to analyse the bio-data of the respondents, while mean was used to answer the research questions. The answers from the research questions indicated that agricultural mechanization has a significant influence on crop production.

The null hypotheses were tested using Chi square statistics. The results showed that they were all rejected because their calculated significant (p) values of 0.00 were lower than the 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that there was increase in crop yields, size of farm, income of the farmers and improvement in their standard of living. All the five null hypotheses were rejected. It was concluded that influence of agricultural mechanization on crop production was significant. The study recommended that mechanized farm tools and equipment should be provided to the farmers by the government in form of subsidy and ensures that it is the right category of farmers benefits. The study also recommended that there should be better funding of extension services programmes so that the extension workers can discharge their duty effectively.