Urban Agriculture among Households of Makurdi Metropolis of Benue State, Nigeria: Key Challenges

The survey was conducted to identify key challenges encountered by households in Makurdi metropolis of Benue state, Nigeria who are engaged in urban agriculture. A well structured questionnaire was used to collect data from a sample of 100 respondents used for the study. Data were analyzed using frequency, percentage and mean score. Results show that a greater percentage (46.0%) of the respondents engaged in cultivation of leafy vegetable, 22.0% cultivated cassava, 21.0% planted sweet potato, 18.0% cultivated tomato while 56.0% reared poultry, 23.0% kept goat, among others. Sources of agricultural information indicated by the respondents were family members/relations (85.0%), friends/neighbors (73.0%), radio (68.0%), extension agents (57.0%), etc. Major challenges encountered by the respondents in urban agriculture include inadequate size of farm land (M= 2.72), lack of access to credit facilities (M= 2.63), lack of funds (M= 2.50), high cost of labor (M= 2.49), insecurity of lands (M= 2.46), theft of crops at maturity (M= 2.38), lack of farm inputs such as improved varieties of seeds, fertilizer (M= 2.23), destruction of crops by stray farm animals (M= 1.96), among others. The study recommends that there is need for adequate provision of farm inputs by government at all levels at subsidized rate in order to reduce the cost of production and enhance optimum productivity.