Author:
Sina Basil Johnson, Adefemi Oyewumi, Bobola Philip Akinrinmade

Doi: 10.26480/amdn.01.2025.01.07

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License CC BY 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

Despite a series of government interventions aimed at bolstering cocoa production in Nigeria, cocoa output continues to decline due to aging trees and other factors. This study examines the factors influencing the intensity of adoption of cocoa farm rehabilitation techniques (CRTs) in Idanre Local study examines, Ondo State, Nigeria. A multistage random sampling procedure was used to select cocoa farmers through a well-structured validated and pretested questionnaire. Data were collected from150 farmers and analyzed with both descriptive and inferential statistics. The fractional probit regression model was used to identify factors influencing the adoption of CRTs. Results revealed that the average age of farmers was 56 years, with a mean household size of 8 and an average farm size of 2.8 hectares. Farmers adopted an average of 4.7 CRTs, reflecting moderate adoption. The marginal effect results showed that farm size (0.341), education (0.052), and yield change (0.158) had a positive significant influence on CRT adoption intensity. Conversely, household size (-0.021), farming experience (-0.032), and cocoa tree age (-0.024) had a negative influence on CRTs adoption rates. It was also revealed that CRT adoption was predominantly hampered by environmental factors (56.1%), such as unpredictable weather and pests, followed by resource inadequacies (21.9%) and resistance to change (13%). Despite these barriers, 82.7% of farmers reported income improvements post-adoption, with 48% experiencing significant increases. The study concludes that farmers should be given the opportunity to have access to financial resources, education, land and and climate-resilient practices to improve CRT adoption and boost cocoa productivity in Nigeria.