A survey of land use practices was conducted in five agrarian communities in eastern Nigeria to obtained current dominant land uses in area and identify the farmer constraints the farmers face in order to proffer solutions so that the farmers can improve on their income and livelihood. Male farmers dominate the farming population with 52% against female farmers. Crop farming is the dominant land use type in all the five locations. Major crops grown are rice, yam, cassava, maize, pigeon pea and okra with rice ranking first in importance in all the locations except at Anaku where it was ranked second to yam probably due to the predominating traditional religious worshiping observed in the area. All farmers are classified as smallholders as the average farm holding was < 6 ha. Other general land uses include residential housing, schools ,churches, markets, roads, mills etc Flooding of farms and farm road erosion are major land limitations because during the rains poor drainage characterize more the 95% of the areas and most farms are submerged. Input constraints include lack of mechanization equipment and agrochemicals including mineral fertilizers. Use of high mounds and raised beds and ridges up to 100 cm were recommended to control the flood where other arable crops other than rice are grown. Government intervention on input provision is apt to help the farmers boost their production.
land uses, limitations, agrarian communities, southeastern Nigeria
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