An Assessment of Youth Empowerment through a New Technology Innovation Adoption among Rice Farmers in Kano State, Nigeria

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of new technology adoption among youth empowerment of rice farmers in Kano State. Primary data was collected from the rice farmers communities. Multinomial logit model and marginal effect model were used. The finding of the study shows that the higher the average yearly income, the higher the farmers’ adoption of modern tools than the traditional or semi-modern tools. Findings are supported by the economic theory of adoption, which links adoption choice with the utilities the farmer derives from the technology in term of productivity and increase in income.  Similarly, the higher the highest educational qualification of the rice farmer, the more (2.0%) the farmer adopts modern rice farming tools; this is in line with the a priori expectation and is statistically significant at 10% level. Farmers that possess higher educational qualification tend to adopt modern tools, perhaps because of the socialisation and information parity between them are their less-educated counterparts. The study concluded that both males and females should really be encouraged to go into rice farming, as majority of the respondents from this study are males. Doing this, will further increase the number rice farmers and consequently boost local rice output.