A Study Of Socio-Economic Importance And Methods Of Controlling Weeds Among Rural Farmers In Yala Local Government Area Of Cross River State, Nigeria

A survey was conducted to determine the socio-economic importance and methods of controlling weeds among rural farmers in Yala Local Government Area of Cross River State, Nigeria. The population of the study consists of all rural farmers in Yala Local Government Area of Cross River State. A total of 150 respondents were randomly selected from the five council wards of the study area. Data for this study were collected mainly from primary sources using a well structured questionnaire. The collected data were analyzed using frequency tables, percentages and Kruskal Wallis (H) test. It was found that most (32.4%) of the respondents fell within the age range of 40-49 years, while majority (72.6%) of them were male farmers. It was also found that 71.9% of them were married, and 43.8 % of them had primary school education. About 63.7% of the respondents took to farming as their major occupation and 46.6% of them have been earning between N35, 000 and N85, 000 per annum, and only 28.8% of them had the largest farm size of 2.0-2.5 hectares. Common weeds found in the study area were spear grass (12.5%), elephant grass (12.4%), guinea grass (12.4%), Southern gamba grass (12.2%), Northern gamba grass (12.0%), giant star grass (10.0%), bahama grass (7.3%), bush marigold (7.0%), goat weed (7.0%) and strigas (6.9%). It was found that 88.4% of the rural farmers used round up to control spear grass, 72.6% used premium to control strigas, 82.2% used glycel to control tridax, 94.5% used force up to control northern gamba grass, 93.8% used round up to control bahama grass, 85.6% used round up to control wire weed, 91.8% used round up to control guinea grass, 87.7% used round up to control giant star grass, while 94.5% used glycel to control goat weed. Kruskal Wallis test (H) reveals that Hcal (0.28)< X 2 tab (9.49) at 0.05 level of significance. This indicates that there is no significant difference in the methods of weed control in the five selected council wards.It was recommended that Government, as well as the private sector should subsidize the cost of herbicides to make them accessible and affordable to rural farmers andfarmers should be educated on the economic importance of weeds, and on the effective use of herbicides for optimum results.