Abstract

The study examined the effect of adoption of improved cassava variety TME 419 on farmers’ livelihood in Ekiti State. Specifically it examined the effect of adoption of TME 419 variety on farmers’ cassava output, income and livelihood activities. A multistage random sampling technique was used to select 192 respondents for the study from Agriculture Development Project Extension Zones in Ondo State. Qualitative and quantitative techniques were used to obtain information for the study. Data were obtained through reliable and validated structured questionnaire while analysis was done through descriptive statistics, Pearson moment correlation and T-test. The result showed that the mean age of the respondents was 60 years with 18.2% having no-formal education, household size of 5 and mean farm size of 2.5 ha. About 81.8% of the respondents had farming as their primary occupation while the average yield from cassava varieties by the farmers before adopting TME 419 was 1.73 tones which increased to 3.17 tones after adoption. The average income of the farmers increased from N30, 000 before adoption to N 75,000 monthly after adoption of cassava TME 419 variety. The livelihood activities of the farmer after adoption increased as the farmers were involved in processing of the cassava variety  to various forms There was a significant difference between farmer’s livelihood before and after adoption of cassava variety TME 419  (t=4.02) and relationship existed between the adoption of cassava TME 419 variety and the livelihood of farmers in the state (r= 0.54).

Key words: Adoption, farmer, livelihood, cassava TME419.