Assessment of Land Conservation Practices of Farmers Under Different Land TenureSystems in Enugu State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study (survey) was undertaken to assess the land conservation practices of farmers under different land tenure systems in Enugu State, Nigeria. Multistage sampling technique was used to select the respondents. It was found out from 120 farmers used for the study that land conservation practices such as terracing, drainage, earth bank, contour cultivation, ridging, mulching and tractorization were lowly adopted across the different tenure categories. However, practices like mounding, organic manuring and crop rotation were widely adopted in all tenure categories except in state land. Tree planting, tree maintenance and boundary fencing were highly adopted in both family and individual lands only. Using ANOVA, it was found that at 5% probability level, there were significant differences in the amount of money used for drainage, mounding, contour cultivation, boundary fencing, ridging, organic manuring, crop rotation, tree planting and tree maintenance across different tenure regimes. Following this, it was recommended that government efforts should be geared towards adopting land reform policies that will enhance better tenure arrangement for progressive and sustainable agricultural development especially as it affects small holder farmers.