ABSTRACT

The study assessed the effect of use of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practice on yield of rice in South-East, Nigeria. The specific objectives of the study include to; ascertain the most prevalent pest of rice in the study area, ascertain farmers’ awareness of IPM, ascertain farmers’ sources of information about IPM in South-East Nigeria, estimate the yield of rice before the use of IPM practice, determine the level of utilization of IPM practice by the respondents, estimate the yield of rice farmers after the use of IPM practice in the study area and ascertain the perceived constraint in the use of IPM. The major hypothesis states that use of IPM practice has no significant effect on the yield of rice in the study area. A Multi- stage sampling technique was used to select 360 respondents from three States (Abia, Ebonyi and Enugu States) of South-East Nigeria. Questionnaire and interview schedule were used for data collection, and data collected were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics such as frequency count, percentages, mean scores, ANOVA and regression model. The results showed that most prevalent pests of rice were represented by birds, grasshopper, grasscutter, stemborer and butterfly and most (64.4%) of the farmers became aware of IPM practice mainly through friends, cooperatives, radio, extension agents, facebook and newspaper.  The estimated yield of rice farmers was low (1,236.5kg/ha) before they started using IPM but became high (3,115kg/ha) after the use of IPM practice. The grand mean score  ( = 3.05) showed that there is high utilization of IPM in South-East. The major perceived constraints in the use of IPM include, inadequate finance, insufficient information about IPM, high cost of inputs, inadequate technical know-how, among others. The first null hypothesis result was rejected since the farmers’ use of IPM had significant effect on yield of rice at 1% probability level. The last null hypothesis was also rejected since there was a significant difference on yield of rice produced, using IPM and that produced without using IPM practice at 0.05 alpha level. The study, therefore, concludes that the use of IPM practice had a positive effect on yield of rice in South-East, Nigeria. It, therefore, recommends that financial agencies should make loan and other credit facilities accessible to rice farmers through their various cooperatives to support their farming activities. Also, extension agencies and Government agricultural ministries should organize in-service training for extension agents to equip them with skills and information about IPM practice because that will help to solve the problem of insufficient information about IPM and inadequate technical know-how. More so, farm shows/exhibition programmes should be organized by agricultural agencies and cooperatives to enable rice farmers showcase their high yields from IPM practice and encourage more farmers to utilize IPM practice.